Yeast Strain for Production of Four Carbon Alcohols

ABSTRACT

Yeast cells with a reduced general control response to amino acid starvation were found to have increased tolerance to butanol in the growth medium. The reduced response was engineered by genetic modification of a gene involved in the response, a GCN gene, to eliminate activity of the encoded protein. Yeast strains with an engineered butanol biosynthetic pathway and a genetic modification in a gene involved in the general control response to amino acid starvation, which have increased butanol tolerance, are useful for production of butanol.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Applications 61/052,286 and 61/052,289, both filed May 12, 2008, both now pending.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The invention relates to the field of microbiology and genetic engineering. More specifically, yeast genes involved in response to butanol were identified. Yeast strains with reduced expression of the identified genes were found to have improved growth yield in the presence of butanol.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

Butanol is an important industrial chemical, useful as a fuel additive, as a feedstock chemical in the plastics industry, and as a foodgrade extractant in the food and flavor industry. Each year 10 to 12 billion pounds of butanol are produced by petrochemical means and the need for this commodity chemical will likely increase.

Methods for the chemical synthesis of butanols are known, however these processes use starting materials derived from petrochemicals, are generally expensive, and are not environmentally friendly. Methods of producing butanol by fermentation are also known, where the most popular process produces a mixture of acetone, 1-butanol and ethanol and is referred to as the ABE processes (Blaschek et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,358,717). Acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation by Clostridium acetobutylicum is one of the oldest known industrial fermentations, and the pathways and genes responsible for the production of these solvents have been reported (Girbal et al., Trends in Biotechnology 16:11-16 (1998)). Isobutanol is produced biologically as a by-product of yeast fermentation. It is a component of “fusel oil” that forms as a result of incomplete metabolism of amino acids by this group of fungi. Isobutanol is specifically produced from catabolism of L-valine. After the amine group of L-valine is harvested as a nitrogen source, the resulting α-keto acid is decarboxylated and reduced to isobutanol by enzymes of the so-called Ehrlich pathway (Dickinson et al., J. Biol. Chem. 273(40):25752-25756 (1998)). Yields of fusel oil and/or its components achieved during beverage fermentation are typically low.

Additionally, recombinant microbial production hosts, expressing a 1-butanol biosynthetic pathway (Donaldson et al., copending and commonly owned U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20080182308), a 2-butanol biosynthetic pathway (Donaldson et al., copending and commonly owned U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. US 20070259410A1 and US 2007-0292927), and an isobutanol biosynthetic pathway (Maggio-Hall et al., copending and commonly owned U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 20070092957) have been described.

Biological production of butanols is believed to be limited by butanol toxicity to the host microorganism used in fermentation for butanol production. Strains of Clostridium that are tolerant to 1-butanol have been isolated by chemical mutagenesis (Jain et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,673; and Blaschek et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,358,717), overexpression of certain classes of genes such as those that express stress response proteins (Papoutsakis et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,960,465; and Tomas et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69(8):4951-4965 (2003)), and by serial enrichment (Quratulain et al., Folia Microbiologica (Prague) 40(5):467-471 (1995); and Soucaille et al., Current Microbiology 14(5):295-299 (1987)). Desmond et al. (Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 70(10):5929-5936 (2004)) report that overexpression of GroESL, two stress responsive proteins, in Lactococcus lactis and Lactobacillus paracasei produced strains that were able to grow in the presence of 0.5% volume/volume (v/v) [0.4% weight/volume (w/v)] 1-butanol. Additionally, the isolation of 1-butanol tolerant strains from estuary sediment (Sardessai et al., Current Science 82(6):622-623 (2002)) and from activated sludge (Bieszkiewicz et al., Acta Microbiologica Polonica 36(3):259-265 (1987)) has been described. Butanol tolerant bacterial strains have been isolated from microbial consortia (copending and commonly owned U.S. Patent Publication Nos. 20070259411, 20080124774 and 20080138870) or by mutant screening (copending and commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 12/330,530, 12/330,531, and 12/330,534).

There remains a need for butanol producing yeast strains that are more tolerant to butanols, as well as methods of producing butanols using yeast host strains that are more tolerant to these chemicals and engineered for butanol production.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides a recombinant yeast host which produces butanol and comprises a genetic modification that results in reduced response in the general control response to amino acid starvation. Such cells have an increased tolerance to butanol as compared with cells that lack the genetic modification. Reduction in response in the general control response to amino acid starvation may be accomplished via mutation of endogenous genes that impact the response. Host cells of the invention may produce butanol naturally or may be engineered to do so via an engineered pathway.

Accordingly, the invention provides a recombinant yeast host cell producing butanol where the yeast cell comprises at least one genetic modification which reduces the response in the general control response to amino acid starvation.

In one embodiment the yeast cell of the invention comprises a genetic modification in a gene encoding a protein selected from Gcn1p, Gcn2p, Gcn3p, Gcn4p, Gcn5p, and Gcn20p.

In another embodiment the yeast cell comprises a recombinant biosynthetic pathway selected from the group consisting of:

a) a 1-butanol biosynthetic pathway;

b) a 2-butanol biosynthetic pathway; and

c) an isobutanol biosynthetic pathway.

In another embodiment the invention provides a method for the production of butanol comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a recombinant yeast host cell which

-   -   1) produces butanol and     -   2) comprises at least one genetic modification which reduces the         response in the general control response to amino acid         starvation; and

(b) culturing the strain of (a) under conditions wherein butanol is produced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES AND SEQUENCE DESCRIPTIONS

The various embodiments of the invention can be more fully understood from the following detailed description, the figures, and the accompanying sequence descriptions, which form a part of this application.

FIG. 1 shows fractional growth yields of wild type, mutant GCN2 and mutant GCN4 strains at 8 hr (A) and 24 hr (B) time points for growth in YVCM containing different concentrations of isobutanol.

FIG. 2 shows fractional growth yields of wild type, mutant GCN2 and mutant GCN4 strains at 7 hr (A) and 23 hr (B) time points for growth in YPD containing different concentrations of isobutanol.

The invention can be more fully understood from the following detailed description and the accompanying sequence descriptions which form a part of this application.

The following sequences conform with 37 C.F.R. 1.821-1.825 (“Requirements for Patent Applications Containing Nucleotide Sequences and/or Amino Acid Sequence Disclosures—the Sequence Rules”) and are consistent with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standard ST.25 (1998) and the sequence listing requirements of the EPO and PCT (Rules 5.2 and 49.5 (a-bis), and Section 208 and Annex C of the Administrative Instructions). The symbols and format used for nucleotide and amino acid sequence data comply with the rules set forth in 37 C.F.R. §1.822.

TABLE 1 Summary of Gene and Protein SEQ ID Numbers for 1-Butanol Biosynthetic Pathway SEQ ID NO: SEQ ID NO: Description Nucleic acid Peptide Acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase thlA from 1 2 Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824 Acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase thlB from 3 4 Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824 Acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase from 39 40 Saccharomyces cerevisiae 3-Hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydrogenase 5 6 from Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 82

Crotonase from Clostridium acetobutylicum 7 8 ATCC 824 Putative trans-enoyl CoA reductase from 9 10 Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824 Butyraldehyde dehydrogenase from 11 12 Clostridium beijerinckii NRRL B594 1-Butanol dehydrogenase bdhB from 13 14 Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824 1-Butanol dehydrogenase 15 16 bdhA from Clostridium acetobutylicum AT

 824

indicates data missing or illegible when filed

TABLE 2 Summary of Gene and Protein SEQ ID Numbers for 2-Butanol Biosynthetic Pathway SEQ ID NO: SEQ ID NO: Description Nucleic acid Peptide budA, acetolactate decarboxylase from 17 18 Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 25955 budB, acetolactate synthase from Klebsiel

19 20 pneumoniae ATCC 25955 budC, butanediol dehydrogenase from 21 22 Klebsiella pneumoniae IAM1063 pddA, butanediol dehydratase alpha subu

23 24 from Klebsiella oxytoca ATCC 8724 pddB, butanediol dehydratase beta subuni

25 26 from Klebsiella oxytoca ATCC 8724 pddC, butanediol dehydratase gamma 27 28 subunit from Klebsiella oxytoca ATCC 872

sadH, 2-butanol dehydrogenase from 29 30 Rhodococcus ruber 219

indicates data missing or illegible when filed

TABLE 3 Summary of Gene and Protein SEQ ID Numbers for Isobutanol Biosynthetic Pathway SEQ ID NO: SEQ ID NO: Description Nucleic acid Peptide Klebsiella pneumoniae budB (acetolactate 19 20 synthase) Bacillus subtilis alsS 41 42 (acetolactate synthase) E. coli ilvC (acetohydroxy acid 31 32 reductoisomerase) S. cerevisiae ILV5 43 44 (acetohydroxy acid reductoisomerase) B. subtilis ilvC (acetohydroxy acid 45 46 reductoisomerase) E. coli ilvD (acetohydroxy acid 33 34 dehydratas

S. cerevisiae ILV3 47 48 (Dihydroxyacid dehydratase) Lactococcus lactis kivD (branched- 35 36 chain α

keto acid decarboxylase), codon optimize

E. coli yqhD (branched-chain alcohol 37 38 dehydrogenase)

indicates data missing or illegible when filed

TABLE 4 Summary of Gene and Protein SEQ ID Numbers for members of general control system for amino acid biosynthesis SEQ ID NO: SEQ ID NO: Description Nucleic acid Peptide GCN1 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae 49 50 GCN2 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae 51 52 GCN3 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae 53 54 GCN4 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae 55 56 GCN5 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae 57 58 GCN20 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae 59 60 GCN1 from Yarrowia lipolytica 61 62 GCN2 from Yarrowia lipolytica 63 64 GCN3 from Yarrowia lipolytica 65 66 GCN5 from Yarrowia lipolytica 67 68 GCN2 from Candida albicans 69 70 GCN3 from Candida albicans 71 72 GCN5 from Candida albicans-1 73 74 GCN5 from Candida albicans-2 75  74* *the same amino acid sequence is encoded by both SEQ ID NO: 73 and 75

SEQ ID NO:76 is the nucleotide sequence of the GPD promoter described in Example 2.

SEQ ID NO:77 is the nucleotide sequence of the CYC1 terminator described in Example 2.

SEQ ID NO:78 is the nucleotide sequence of the FBA promoter described in Example 2.

SEQ ID NO:79 is the nucleotide sequence of ADH1 promoter described in Example 2.

SEQ ID NO:80 is the nucleotide sequence of ADH1 terminator described in Example 2.

SEQ ID NO:81 is the nucleotide sequence of GPM promoter described in Example 2.

SEQ ID NOs:82-137 are the nucleotide sequences of oligonucleotide cloning, screening or sequencing primers used in the Examples described herein.

SEQ ID NO:138 is the nucleotide sequence of the “URA3 repeats” fragment.

SEQ ID NOs:139 and 140 are the nucleotide sequences of PCR primers used to amplify a DNA fragment for gcn2 deletion.

SEQ ID NOs:141 and 142 are the nucleotide sequences of PCR primers used to amplify a DNA fragment for gcn4 deletion.

SEQ ID NOs:143 and 144 are primer binding sequences that bound direct repeats flanking URA3⁺ in the “URA3 repeats” fragment. SEQ ID NOs:145 and 146 are direct repeat sequences that flank the promoter and coding sequence in the “URA3 repeats” fragment.

SEQ ID NO:147 is the promoter sequence in the “URA3 repeats” fragment.

SEQ ID NO:148 is the URA3 coding sequence in the “URA3 repeats” fragment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a recombinant yeast host which produces butanol and comprises a genetic modification that results in a reduced response in the general control response to amino acid starvation. Such cells have an increased tolerance to butanol as compared with cells that lack the genetic modification. A tolerant yeast strain of the invention has at least one genetic modification that causes the reduced general control response to amino acid starvation. This reduced response may be accomplished via mutation of endogenous genes that impact the response. Host cells of the invention may produce butanol naturally or may be engineered to do so via an engineered pathway.

Butanol produced using the present strains may be used as an alternative energy source to fossil fuels. Fermentative production of butanol results in less pollutants than typical petrochemical synthesis.

The following abbreviations and definitions will be used for the interpretation of the specification and the claims.

As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” “including,” “has,” “having,” “contains” or “containing,” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a composition, a mixture, process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such composition, mixture, process, method, article, or apparatus. Further, unless expressly stated to the contrary, “or” refers to an inclusive or and not to an exclusive or. For example, a condition A or B is satisfied by any one of the following: A is true (or present) and B is false (or not present), A is false (or not present) and B is true (or present), and both A and B are true (or present).

Also, the indefinite articles “a” and “an” preceding an element or component of the invention are intended to be nonrestrictive regarding the number of instances (i.e. occurrences) of the element or component. Therefore “a” or “an” should be read to include one or at least one, and the singular word form of the element or component also includes the plural unless the number is obviously meant to be singular.

The term “invention” or “present invention” as used herein is a non-limiting term and is not intended to refer to any single embodiment of the particular invention but encompasses all possible embodiments as described in the specification and the claims.

As used herein, the term “about” modifying the quantity of an ingredient or reactant of the invention employed refers to variation in the numerical quantity that can occur, for example, through typical measuring and liquid handling procedures used for making concentrates or use solutions in the real world; through inadvertent error in these procedures; through differences in the manufacture, source, or purity of the ingredients employed to make the compositions or carry out the methods; and the like. The term “about” also encompasses amounts that differ due to different equilibrium conditions for a composition resulting from a particular initial mixture. Whether or not modified by the term “about”, the claims include equivalents to the quantities. In one embodiment, the term “about” means within 10% of the reported numerical value, preferably within 5% of the reported numerical value.

The term “butanol” as used herein, refers to 1-butanol, 2-butanol, isobutanol, or mixtures thereof.

The terms “butanol tolerant yeast strain” and “tolerant” when used to describe a modified yeast strain of the invention, refers to a modified yeast that shows better growth in the presence of butanol than the parent strain from which it is derived.

The term “butanol biosynthetic pathway” refers to an enzyme pathway to produce 1-butanol, 2-butanol, or isobutanol.

The term “1-butanol biosynthetic pathway” refers to an enzyme pathway to produce 1-butanol from acetyl-coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA).

The term “2-butanol biosynthetic pathway” refers to an enzyme pathway to produce 2-butanol from pyruvate.

The term “isobutanol biosynthetic pathway” refers to an enzyme pathway to produce isobutanol from pyruvate.

The term “acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase” refers to an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of two molecules of acetyl-CoA to acetoacetyl-CoA and coenzyme A (CoA). Preferred acetyl-CoA acetyltransferases are acetyl-CoA acetyltransferases with substrate preferences (reaction in the forward direction) for a short chain acyl-CoA and acetyl-CoA and are classified as E.C. 2.3.1.9 [Enzyme Nomenclature 1992, Academic Press, San Diego]; although, enzymes with a broader substrate range (E.C. 2.3.1.16) will be functional as well. Acetyl-CoA acetyltransferases are available from a number of sources, for example, Escherichia coli (GenBank Nos: NP_(—)416728, NC_(—)000913; NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) amino acid sequence, NCBI nucleotide sequence), Clostridium acetobutylicum (GenBank Nos: NP_(—)349476.1 (SEQ ID NO:2), NC_(—)003030; NP_(—)149242 (SEQ ID NO:4), NC_(—)001988), Bacillus subtilis (GenBank Nos: NP_(—)390297, NC_(—)000964), and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (GenBank Nos: NP_(—)015297, NC_(—)001148 (SEQ ID NO:39)).

The term “3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydrogenase” refers to an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of acetoacetyl-CoA to 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA. 3-Hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydrogenases may be reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH)-dependent, with a substrate preference for (S)-3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA or (R)-3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA and are classified as E.C. 1.1.1.35 and E.C. 1.1.1.30, respectively. Additionally, 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydrogenases may be reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH)-dependent, with a substrate preference for (S)-3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA or (R)-3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA and are classified as E.C. 1.1.1.157 and E.C. 1.1.1.36, respectively. 3-Hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydrogenases are available from a number of sources, for example, C. acetobutylicum (GenBank NOs: NP_(—)349314 (SEQ ID NO:6), NC_(—)003030), B. subtilis (GenBank NOs: AAB09614, U29084), Ralstonia eutropha (GenBank NOs: ZP_(—)0017144, NZAADY01000001, Alcaligenes eutrophus (GenBank NOs: YP_(—)294481, NC_(—)007347), and A. eutrophus (Gen Bank NOs: P14697, J04987).

The term “crotonase” refers to an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA and H₂O. Crotonases may have a substrate preference for (S)-3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA or (R)-3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA and are classified as E.C. 4.2.1.17 and E.C. 4.2.1.55, respectively. Crotonases are available from a number of sources, for example, E. coli (GenBank NOs: NP_(—)415911 (SEQ ID NO:8), NC_(—)000913), C. acetobutylicum (GenBank NOs: NP_(—)349318, NC_(—)003030), B. subtilis (GenBank NOs: CAB13705, Z99113), and Aeromonas caviae (GenBank NOs: BAA21816, D88825).

The term “butyryl-CoA dehydrogenase”, also called trans-enoyl CoA reductase, refers to an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of crotonyl-CoA to butyryl-CoA. Butyryl-CoA dehydrogenases may be NADH-dependent or NADPH-dependent and are classified as E.C. 1.3.1.44 and E.C. 1.3.1.38, respectively. Butyryl-CoA dehydrogenases are available from a number of sources, for example, C. acetobutylicum (GenBank NOs: NP_(—)347102 (SEQ ID NO:10), NC_(—)003030), Euglena gracilis (GenBank NOs: Q5EU90, AY741582), Streptomyces collinus (GenBank NOs: AAA92890, U37135), and Streptomyces coelicolor (GenBank NOs: CAA22721, AL939127).

The term “butyraldehyde dehydrogenase” refers to an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of butyryl-CoA to butyraldehyde, using NADH or NADPH as cofactor. Butyraldehyde dehydrogenases with a preference for NADH are known as E.C. 1.2.1.57 and are available from, for example, Clostridium beijerinckii (GenBank NOs: AAD31841 (SEQ ID NO:12), AF157306) and C. acetobutylicum (GenBank NOs: NP_(—)149325, NC_(—)001988).

The term “1-butanol dehydrogenase” refers to an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of butyraldehyde to 1-butanol. 1-butanol dehydrogenases are a subset of the broad family of alcohol dehydrogenases. 1-butanol dehydrogenase may be NADH- or NADPH-dependent. 1-butanol dehydrogenases are available from, for example, C. acetobutylicum (GenBank NOs: NP_(—)149325, NC_(—)001988; NP_(—)349891 (SEQ ID NO:14), NC_(—)003030; and NP_(—)349892 (SEQ ID NO:16), NC_(—)003030) and E. coli (GenBank NOs: NP_(—)417484, NC_(—)000913).

The term “acetolactate synthase”, also known as “acetohydroxy acid synthase”, refers to a polypeptide (or polypeptides) having an enzyme activity that catalyzes the conversion of two molecules of pyruvic acid to one molecule of alpha-acetolactate. Acetolactate synthase, known as EC 2.2.1.6 [formerly 4.1.3.18] (Enzyme Nomenclature 1992, Academic Press, San Diego) may be dependent on the cofactor thiamin pyrophosphate for its activity. Suitable acetolactate synthase enzymes are available from a number of sources, for example, Bacillus subtilis (GenBank Nos: AAA22222 NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) amino acid sequence (SEQ ID NO:42), L04470 NCBI nucleotide sequence (SEQ ID NO:41)), Klebsiella terrigena (GenBank Nos: AAA25055, L04507), and Klebsiella pneumoniae (GenBank Nos: AAA25079 (SEQ ID NO:20), M73842 (SEQ ID NO:19).

The term “acetolactate decarboxylase” refers to a polypeptide (or polypeptides) having an enzyme activity that catalyzes the conversion of alpha-acetolactate to acetoin. Acetolactate decarboxylases are known as EC 4.1.1.5 and are available, for example, from Bacillus subtilis (GenBank Nos: AAA22223, L04470), Klebsiella terrigena (GenBank Nos: AAA25054, L04507) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (SEQ ID NO:18 (amino acid) SEQ ID NO:17 (nucleotide)).

The term “butanediol dehydrogenase” also known as “acetoin reductase” refers to a polypeptide (or polypeptides) having an enzyme activity that catalyzes the conversion of acetoin to 2,3-butanediol. Butanediol dehydrogenases are a subset of the broad family of alcohol dehydrogenases.

Butanediol dehydrogenase enzymes may have specificity for production of R- or S-stereochemistry in the alcohol product. S-specific butanediol dehydrogenases are known as EC 1.1.1.76 and are available, for example, from Klebsiella pneumoniae (GenBank Nos: BBA13085 (SEQ ID NO:22), D86412. R-specific butanediol dehydrogenases are known as EC 1.1.1.4 and are available, for example, from Bacillus cereus (GenBank Nos. NP_(—)830481, NC_(—)004722; AAP07682, AE017000), and Lactococcus lactis (GenBank Nos. AAK04995, AE006323).

The term “butanediol dehydratase”, also known as “diol dehydratase” or “propanediol dehydratase” refers to a polypeptide (or polypeptides) having an enzyme activity that catalyzes the conversion of 2,3-butanediol to 2-butanone, also known as methyl ethyl ketone (MEK). Butanediol dehydratase may utilize the cofactor adenosyl cobalamin. Adenosyl cobalamin-dependent enzymes are known as EC 4.2.1.28 and are available, for example, from Klebsiella oxytoca (GenBank Nos: BAA08099 (alpha subunit) (SEQ ID NO:24), BAA08100 (beta subunit) (SEQ ID NO:26), and BBA08101 (gamma subunit) (SEQ ID NO:28), (Note all three subunits are required for activity), D45071).

The term “2-butanol dehydrogenase” refers to a polypeptide (or polypeptides) having an enzyme activity that catalyzes the conversion of 2-butanone to 2-butanol. 2-butanol dehydrogenases are a subset of the broad family of alcohol dehydrogenases. 2-butanol dehydrogenase may be NADH- or NADPH-dependent. The NADH-dependent enzymes are known as EC 1.1.1.1 and are available, for example, from Rhodococcus ruber (GenBank Nos: CAD36475 (SEQ ID NO:30), AJ491307 (SEQ ID NO:29)). The NADPH-dependent enzymes are known as EC 1.1.1.2 and are available, for example, from Pyrococcus furiosus (GenBank Nos: AAC25556, AF013169).

The term “acetohydroxy acid isomeroreductase” or “acetohydroxy acid reductoisomerase” refers to an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of acetolactate to 2,3-dihydroxyisovalerate using NADPH (reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate) as an electron donor. Preferred acetohydroxy acid isomeroreductases are known by the EC number 1.1.1.86 and sequences are available from a vast array of microorganisms, including, but not limited to, Escherichia coli (GenBank Nos: NP_(—)418222 (SEQ ID NO:32), NC_(—)000913 (SEQ ID NO:31)), Saccharomyces cerevisiae (GenBank Nos: NP_(—)013459 (SEQ ID NO:44), NC_(—)001144 (SEQ ID NO:43)), Methanococcus maripaludis (GenBank Nos: CAF30210, BX957220), and Bacillus subtilis (GenBank Nos: CAB14789 (SEQ ID NO:46), Z99118 (SEQ ID NO:45)).

The term “acetohydroxy acid dehydratase” or “dihydroxy acid dehydratase” refers to an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of 2,3-dihydroxyisovalerate to α-ketoisovalerate. Preferred acetohydroxy acid dehydratases are known by the EC number 4.2.1.9. These enzymes are available from a vast array of microorganisms, including, but not limited to, E. coli (GenBank Nos: YP_(—)026248 (SEQ ID NO:34), NC_(—)000913 (SEQ ID NO:33)), S. cerevisiae (GenBank Nos: NP_(—)012550 (SEQ ID NO:48), NC_(—)001142 (SEQ ID NO:47)), M. maripaludis (GenBank Nos: CAF29874, BX957219), and B. subtilis (GenBank Nos: CAB14105, Z99115).

The term “branched-chain α-keto acid decarboxylase” refers to an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of α-ketoisovalerate to isobutyraldehyde and CO₂. Preferred branched-chain α-keto acid decarboxylases are known by the EC number 4.1.1.72 and are available from a number of sources, including, but not limited to, Lactococcus lactis (GenBank Nos: AAS49166, AY548760; CAG34226 (SEQ ID NO:36), AJ746364, Salmonella typhimurium (GenBank Nos: NP_(—)461346, NC_(—)003197), and Clostridium acetobutylicum (GenBank Nos: NP_(—)149189, NC_(—)001988).

The term “branched-chain alcohol dehydrogenase” refers to an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of isobutyraldehyde to isobutanol. Preferred branched-chain alcohol dehydrogenases are known by the EC number 1.1.1.265, but may also be classified under other alcohol dehydrogenases (specifically, EC 1.1.1.1 or 1.1.1.2). These enzymes utilize NADH (reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) and/or NADPH as electron donor and are available from a number of sources, including, but not limited to, S. cerevisiae (GenBank Nos: NP_(—)010656, NC_(—)001136; NP_(—)014051, NC_(—)001145), E. coli (GenBank Nos: NP_(—)417484 (SEQ ID NO:38), NC_(—)000913 (SEQ ID NO:37)), and C. acetobutylicum (GenBank Nos: NP_(—)349892, NC_(—)003030).

The term “gene” refers to a nucleic acid fragment that is capable of being expressed as a specific protein, optionally including regulatory sequences preceding (5′ non-coding sequences) and following (3′ non-coding sequences) the coding sequence. “Native gene” refers to a gene as found in nature with its own regulatory sequences. “Chimeric gene” refers to any gene that is not a native gene, comprising regulatory and coding sequences that are not found together in nature. Accordingly, a chimeric gene may comprise regulatory sequences and coding sequences that are derived from different sources, or regulatory sequences and coding sequences derived from the same source, but arranged in a manner different than that found in nature. “Endogenous gene” refers to a native gene in its natural location in the genome of an organism. A “foreign” gene refers to a gene not normally found in the host organism, but that is introduced into the host organism by gene transfer. Foreign genes can comprise native genes inserted into a non-native organism, or chimeric genes. A “transgene” is a gene that has been introduced into the genome by a transformation procedure.

As used herein the term “coding sequence” refers to a DNA sequence that codes for a specific amino acid sequence. “Suitable regulatory sequences” refer to nucleotide sequences located upstream (5′ non-coding sequences), within, or downstream (3′ non-coding sequences) of a coding sequence, and which influence the transcription, RNA processing or stability, or translation of the associated coding sequence. Regulatory sequences may include promoters, translation leader sequences, introns, polyadenylation recognition sequences, RNA processing site, effector binding site and stem-loop structure.

The term “promoter” refers to a DNA sequence capable of controlling the expression of a coding sequence or functional RNA. In general, a coding sequence is located 3′ to a promoter sequence. Promoters may be derived in their entirety from a native gene, or be composed of different elements derived from different promoters found in nature, or even comprise synthetic DNA segments. It is understood by those skilled in the art that different promoters may direct the expression of a gene in different tissues or cell types, or at different stages of development, or in response to different environmental or physiological conditions. Promoters which cause a gene to be expressed in most cell types at most times are commonly referred to as “constitutive promoters”. It is further recognized that since in most cases the exact boundaries of regulatory sequences have not been completely defined, DNA fragments of different lengths may have identical promoter activity.

The term “operably linked” refers to the association of nucleic acid sequences on a single nucleic acid fragment so that the function of one is affected by the other. For example, a promoter is operably linked with a coding sequence when it is capable of effecting the expression of that coding sequence (i.e., that the coding sequence is under the transcriptional control of the promoter). Coding sequences can be operably linked to regulatory sequences in sense or antisense orientation.

The term “expression”, as used herein, refers to the transcription and stable accumulation of sense (mRNA) or antisense RNA derived from the nucleic acid fragment of the invention. Expression may also refer to translation of mRNA into a polypeptide.

As used herein the term “transformation” refers to the transfer of a nucleic acid fragment into a host organism, resulting in genetically stable inheritance. Host organisms containing the transformed nucleic acid fragments are referred to as “transgenic” or “recombinant” or “transformed” organisms.

The terms “plasmid” and “vector” refer to an extra chromosomal element often carrying genes which are not part of the central metabolism of the cell, and usually in the form of circular double-stranded DNA fragments. Such elements may be autonomously replicating sequences, genome integrating sequences, phage or nucleotide sequences, linear or circular, of a single- or double-stranded DNA or RNA, derived from any source, in which a number of nucleotide sequences have been joined or recombined into a unique construction which is capable of introducing a promoter fragment and DNA sequence for a selected gene product along with appropriate 3′ untranslated sequence into a cell. “Transformation vector” refers to a specific vector containing a foreign gene and having elements in addition to the foreign gene that facilitates transformation of a particular host cell.

As used herein the term “codon degeneracy” refers to the nature in the genetic code permitting variation of the nucleotide sequence without affecting the amino acid sequence of an encoded polypeptide. The skilled artisan is well aware of the “codon-bias” exhibited by a specific host cell in usage of nucleotide codons to specify a given amino acid. Therefore, when synthesizing a gene for improved expression in a host cell, it is desirable to design the gene such that its frequency of codon usage approaches the frequency of preferred codon usage of the host cell.

The term “codon-optimized” as it refers to genes or coding regions of nucleic acid molecules for transformation of various hosts, refers to the alteration of codons in the gene or coding regions of the nucleic acid molecules to reflect the typical codon usage of the host organism without altering the polypeptide encoded by the DNA.

A “carbon substrate” means a carbon contain compound useful as an energy source of a yeast and may include but are not limited to monosaccharides such as glucose and fructose, oligosaccharides such as lactose or sucrose, polysaccharides such as starch or cellulose or mixtures thereof and unpurified mixtures from renewable feedstocks such as cheese whey permeate, cornsteep liquor, sugar beet molasses, and barley malt.

A “cell having a reduced response in the general control response to amino acid starvation” refers herein to a cell that does not sense uncharged tRNA as a signal for induction of transcription of amino acid biosynthetic genes, and/or it does not respond to amino acid starvation by inducing transcription of amino acid biosynthetic genes (Hinnebusch (2005) Ann. Rev. Microbiol. 59:407-450).

As used herein, an “isolated nucleic acid fragment” or “isolated nucleic acid molecule” will be used interchangeably and will mean a polymer of RNA or DNA that is single- or double-stranded, optionally containing synthetic, non-natural or altered nucleotide bases. An isolated nucleic acid fragment in the form of a polymer of DNA may be comprised of one or more segments of cDNA, genomic DNA or synthetic DNA.

A nucleic acid fragment is “hybridizable” to another nucleic acid fragment, such as a cDNA, genomic DNA, or RNA molecule, when a single-stranded form of the nucleic acid fragment can anneal to the other nucleic acid fragment under the appropriate conditions of temperature and solution ionic strength. Hybridization and washing conditions are well known and exemplified in Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E. F. and Maniatis, T. Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2^(nd) ed., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. (1989), particularly Chapter 11 and Table 11.1 therein (entirely incorporated herein by reference). The conditions of temperature and ionic strength determine the “stringency” of the hybridization. Stringency conditions can be adjusted to screen for moderately similar fragments (such as homologous sequences from distantly related organisms), to highly similar fragments (such as genes that duplicate functional enzymes from closely related organisms). Post-hybridization washes determine stringency conditions. One set of preferred conditions uses a series of washes starting with 6×SSC, 0.5% SDS at room temperature for 15 min, then repeated with 2×SSC, 0.5% SDS at 45° C. for 30 min, and then repeated twice with 0.2×SSC, 0.5% SDS at 50° C. for 30 min. A more preferred set of stringent conditions uses higher temperatures in which the washes are identical to those above except for the temperature of the final two 30 min washes in 0.2×SSC, 0.5% SDS was increased to 60° C. Another preferred set of highly stringent conditions uses two final washes in 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS at 65° C. An additional set of stringent conditions include hybridization at 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS, 65° C. and washes with 2×SSC, 0.1% SDS followed by 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS, for example.

Hybridization requires that the two nucleic acids contain complementary sequences, although depending on the stringency of the hybridization, mismatches between bases are possible. The appropriate stringency for hybridizing nucleic acids depends on the length of the nucleic acids and the degree of complementation, variables well known in the art. The greater the degree of similarity or homology between two nucleotide sequences, the greater the value of Tm for hybrids of nucleic acids having those sequences. The relative stability (corresponding to higher Tm) of nucleic acid hybridizations decreases in the following order: RNA:RNA, DNA:RNA, DNA:DNA. For hybrids of greater than 100 nucleotides in length, equations for calculating Tm have been derived (see Sambrook et al., supra, 9.50-9.51). For hybridizations with shorter nucleic acids, i.e., oligonucleotides, the position of mismatches becomes more important, and the length of the oligonucleotide determines its specificity (see Sambrook et al., supra, 11.7-11.8). In one embodiment the length for a hybridizable nucleic acid is at least about 10 nucleotides. Preferably a minimum length for a hybridizable nucleic acid is at least about 15 nucleotides; more preferably at least about 20 nucleotides; and most preferably the length is at least about nucleotides. Furthermore, the skilled artisan will recognize that the temperature and wash solution salt concentration may be adjusted as necessary according to factors such as length of the probe.

The term “complementary” is used to describe the relationship between nucleotide bases that are capable of hybridizing to one another. For example, with respect to DNA, adenosine is complementary to thymine and cytosine is complementary to guanine.

The term “percent identity”, as known in the art, is a relationship between two or more polypeptide sequences or two or more polynucleotide sequences, as determined by comparing the sequences. In the art, “identity” also means the degree of sequence relatedness between polypeptide or polynucleotide sequences, as the case may be, as determined by the match between strings of such sequences. “Identity” and “similarity” can be readily calculated by known methods, including but not limited to those described in: 1.) Computational Molecular Biology (Lesk, A. M., Ed.) Oxford University: NY (1988); 2.) Biocomputinq: Informatics and Genome Projects (Smith, D. W., Ed.) Academic: NY (1993); 3.) Computer Analysis of Sequence Data, Part I (Griffin, A. M., and Griffin, H. G., Eds.) Humania: NJ (1994); 4.) Sequence Analysis in Molecular Biology (von Heinje, G., Ed.) Academic (1987); and 5.) Sequence Analysis Primer (Gribskov, M. and Devereux, J., Eds.) Stockton: NY (1991).

Preferred methods to determine identity are designed to give the best match between the sequences tested. Methods to determine identity and similarity are codified in publicly available computer programs. Sequence alignments and percent identity calculations may be performed using the MegAlign™ program of the LASERGENE bioinformatics computing suite (DNASTAR Inc., Madison, Wis.). Multiple alignment of the sequences is performed using the “Clustal method of alignment” which encompasses several varieties of the algorithm including the “Clustal V method of alignment” corresponding to the alignment method labeled Clustal V (described by Higgins and Sharp, CABIOS. 5:151-153 (1989); Higgins, D. G. et al., Comput. Appl. Biosci., 8:189-191 (1992)) and found in the MegAlign™ program of the LASERGENE bioinformatics computing suite (DNASTAR Inc.). For multiple alignments, the default values correspond to GAP PENALTY=10 and GAP LENGTH PENALTY=10. Default parameters for pairwise alignments and calculation of percent identity of protein sequences using the Clustal method are KTUPLE=1, GAP PENALTY=3, WINDOW=5 and DIAGONALS SAVED=5. For nucleic acids these parameters are KTUPLE=2, GAP PENALTY=5, WINDOW=4 and DIAGONALS SAVED=4. After alignment of the sequences using the Clustal V program, it is possible to obtain a “percent identity” by viewing the “sequence distances” table in the same program. Additionally the “Clustal W method of alignment” is available and corresponds to the alignment method labeled Clustal W (described by Higgins and Sharp, CABIOS. 5:151-153 (1989); Higgins, D. G. et al., Comput. Appl. Biosci. 8:189-191 (1992)) and found in the MegAlign™ v6.1 program of the LASERGENE bioinformatics computing suite (DNASTAR Inc.). Default parameters for multiple alignment (GAP PENALTY=10, GAP LENGTH PENALTY=0.2, Delay Divergen Seqs (%)=30, DNA Transition Weight=0.5, Protein Weight Matrix=Gonnet Series, DNA Weight Matrix=IUB). After alignment of the sequences using the Clustal W program, it is possible to obtain a “percent identity” by viewing the “sequence distances” table in the same program.

It is well understood by one skilled in the art that many levels of sequence identity are useful in identifying polypeptides, from other species, wherein such polypeptides have the same or similar function or activity. Useful examples of percent identities include, but are not limited to: 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, or any integer percentage from 70% to 100% may be useful in describing the present invention, such as 70%, 71%, 72%, 73%, 74%, 75%, 76%, 77%, 78%, 79%, 80%, 81%, 82%, 83%, 84%, 85%, 86%, 87%, 88%, 89%, 90%, 91%, 92%, 93%, 94%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98% or 99%. Suitable nucleic acid fragments encode polypeptides with the above identities and typically encode a polypeptide having at least about 250 amino acids, preferably at least 300 amino acids, and most preferably at least about 348 amino acids.

The term “sequence analysis software” refers to any computer algorithm or software program that is useful for the analysis of nucleotide or amino acid sequences. “Sequence analysis software” may be commercially available or independently developed. Typical sequence analysis software will include, but is not limited to: 1.) the GCG suite of programs (Wisconsin Package Version 9.0, Genetics Computer Group (GCG), Madison, Wis.); 2.) BLASTP, BLASTN, BLASTX (Altschul et al., J. Mol. Biol., 215:403-410 (1990)); 3.) DNASTAR (DNASTAR, Inc. Madison, Wis.); 4.) Sequencher (Gene Codes Corporation, Ann Arbor, Mich.); and 5.) the FASTA program incorporating the Smith-Waterman algorithm (W. R. Pearson, Comput. Methods Genome Res., [Proc. Int. Symp.] (1994), Meeting Date 1992, 111-20. Editor(s): Suhai, Sandor. Plenum: New York, N.Y.). Within the context of this application it will be understood that where sequence analysis software is used for analysis, that the results of the analysis will be based on the “default values” of the program referenced, unless otherwise specified. As used herein “default values” will mean any set of values or parameters that originally load with the software when first initialized.

A “substantial portion” of an amino acid or nucleotide sequence is that portion comprising enough of the amino acid sequence of a polypeptide or the nucleotide sequence of a gene to putatively identify that polypeptide or gene, either by manual evaluation of the sequence by one skilled in the art, or by computer-automated sequence comparison and identification using algorithms such as BLAST (Altschul, S. F., et al., J. Mol. Biol., 215:403-410 (1993)). In general, a sequence of ten or more contiguous amino acids or thirty or more nucleotides is necessary in order to putatively identify a polypeptide or nucleic acid sequence as homologous to a known protein or gene. Moreover, with respect to nucleotide sequences, gene specific oligonucleotide probes comprising 20-30 contiguous nucleotides may be used in sequence-dependent methods of gene identification (e.g., Southern hybridization) and isolation (e.g., in situ hybridization of bacterial colonies or bacteriophage plaques). In addition, short oligonucleotides of 12-15 bases may be used as amplification primers in PCR in order to obtain a particular nucleic acid fragment comprising the primers. Accordingly, a “substantial portion” of a nucleotide sequence comprises enough of the sequence to specifically identify and/or isolate a nucleic acid fragment comprising the sequence. The instant specification teaches the complete amino acid and nucleotide sequence encoding particular alcohol dehydrogenase proteins. The skilled artisan, having the benefit of the sequences as reported herein, may now use all or a substantial portion of the disclosed sequences for purposes known to those skilled in this art. Accordingly, the instant invention comprises the complete sequences as reported in the accompanying Sequence Listing, as well as substantial portions of those sequences as defined above.

The invention encompasses more than the specific exemplary sequences because it is well known in the art that alterations in an amino acid sequence or in a coding region wherein a chemically equivalent amino acid is substituted at a given site, which does not effect the functional properties of the encoded protein, are common. For the purposes of the present invention substitutions are defined as exchanges within one of the following five groups:

1. Small aliphatic, nonpolar or slightly polar residues: Ala, Ser, Thr (Pro, Gly); 2. Polar, negatively charged residues and their amides: Asp, Asn, Glu, Gln; 3. Polar, positively charged residues: His, Arg, Lys; 4. Large aliphatic, nonpolar residues: Met, Leu, Ile, Val (Cys); and 5. Large aromatic residues: Phe, Tyr, Trp. Thus, a codon for the amino acid alanine, a hydrophobic amino acid, may be substituted by a codon encoding another less hydrophobic residue (such as glycine) or a more hydrophobic residue (such as valine, leucine, or isoleucine). Similarly, changes which result in substitution of one negatively charged residue for another (such as aspartic acid for glutamic acid) or one positively charged residue for another (such as lysine for arginine) can also be expected to produce a functionally equivalent product. In many cases, nucleotide changes which result in alteration of the N-terminal and C-terminal portions of the protein molecule would also not be expected to alter the activity of the protein. Thus coding regions with the described codon variations, and proteins with the described amino acid variations are encompassed in the present invention.

Standard recombinant DNA and molecular cloning techniques used here are well known in the art and are described by Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E. F. and Maniatis, T. Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2^(nd) ed.; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., 1989 (hereinafter “Maniatis”); and by Silhavy, T. J., Bennan, M. L. and Enquist, L. W. Experiments with Gene Fusions; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., 1984; and by Ausubel, F. M. et al., In Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, published by Greene Publishing and Wiley-Interscience, 1987. Additional methods used here are in Methods in Enzymology, Volume 194, Guide to Yeast Genetics and Molecular and Cell Biology (Part A, 2004, Christine Guthrie and Gerald R. Fink (Eds.), Elsevier Academic Press, San Diego, Calif.).

General Control Response Target Genes for Engineering Butanol Tolerance in Yeast

The invention relates to the discovery that reducing expression of a gene involved in the general control response to amino acid starvation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae results in increased tolerance of cells to butanol. The general control response to amino acid starvation in yeast is a complex system that senses the presence of uncharged tRNAs and responds by inducing transcription of amino acid biosynthetic genes. This control system (reviewed in Hinebusch (2005) Ann. Rev. Microbiol. 59: 407-450) includes genes that when mutated confer sensitivity to a wide range of amino acid antagonists and analogs; these genes were called general control non-depressible, or GCN, for the mutant phenotype of not responding to amino acid starvation.

For example, GCN2 encodes a protein (Gcn2p) which senses uncharged tRNA and binds to ribosomes via one Gcn2p domain, the carboxy-terminal domain. Uncharged tRNA is sensed by a second internal domain of Gcn2p termed His RS (for histidyl-tRNA synthetase like). This binding of uncharged tRNA to the HRS domain results in yet another Gcn2p domain (PK) kinasing eukaryotic initiation factor 2 that is associated with GDP (eIF2˜GDP) producing eIF2-P˜GDP. In turn, eIF2-P˜GDP stimulates translation of the GCN4 encoded mRNA and Gcn4p (the GCN4 encoded protein) activates expression of many genes involved in amino acid biosynthesis.

Initiation of translation requires an activated form of an initiation factor, eIF2: eIF2˜GTP. This activated form presents the initiating tRNA, finet-tRNA, to the ribosome. eIF2-finet-tRNA˜GTP normally starts translation by binding to ribosomes where eventually eIF2˜GDP is released. This form of the initiation factor is inactive and must be activated by exchange of GTP for GDP producing eIF2-GTP. When Gcn2p's kinase is activated, eIF2˜GDP is hijacked yielding eIF2˜P. This form, eIF2˜P, blocks the Guanine Exchange Factor eIF2B from catalyzing the reaction: eIF2˜GDP+GTP->eIF2˜GTP+GDP. Thus most translational initiation is retarded while translation of Gcn4p, the transcriptional activator of amino acid biosynthetic genes, is increased.

Additional GCN gene encoded proteins involved in the general control response to amino acid starvation system in Saccharomyces cerevisiae include:

Gcn1p: a positive regulator of the Gcn2p kinase activity Gcn3p: alpha subunit of the translation initiation factor eIF2B, a positive regulator of GCN4 expression Gcn5p: histone acetyltransferase, acetylates N-terminal lysines on histones H₂B and H3; catalytic subunit of the ADA and SAGA histone acetyltransferase complexes Gcn6p: positive regulator of GCN4 transcription Gcn7p: positive regulator of GCN4 transcription Gcn8p: role undefined Gcn9p: role undefined Gcn20p: positive regulator of Gcn2p kinase activity, forms a complex with Gcn1p

Given in Table 4 are the SEQ ID NOs for the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Gcn1-5p and Gcn20p proteins and their coding regions. Also given in Table 4 are representative coding regions and proteins for GCN genes of Yarrowia lipolytica and Candida albicans.

A mutation that reduces or eliminates expression of a protein involved in the general control response to amino acid starvation in yeast will reduce the response and surprisingly provide an increase in butanol tolerance. Thus the present yeast host has a genetic modification reducing activity of at least one protein involved in the general control response to amino acid starvation. Suitable genes for genetic modification to reduce the general control response to amino acid starvation include genes encoding Gcn1p, Gcn2p, Gcn3p, Gcn4p, Gcn5p, Gcn6p, Gcn7p, Gcn8p, Gcn9p, and Gcn20p. Examples of these proteins are given in Table 4 as SEQ ID NOS:50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, and 74. Genes encoding proteins with sequence identities of at least about 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or more to these proteins and having GCN activity may be targets for genetic modification to reduce the general control response to amino acid starvation. More suitable targets are genes encoding Gcn1p, Gcn2p, Gcn3p, Gcn4p, Gcn5p, and Gcn20p. Most suitable targets are genes encoding Gcn2p and Gcn4p.

Any yeast gene identified as encoding a Gcn1p, Gcn2p, Gcn3p, Gcn4p, Gcn5p, Gcn6p, Gcn7p, Gcn8p, Gcn9p, or Gcn20p protein, or other gene encoding a protein involved in the general control response to amino acid starvation, is a target gene for modification in the corresponding yeast strain to create a strain of the present invention with increased butanol tolerance. Any type of yeast having a GCN system may be engineered for butanol tolerance using the method of the present invention. Yeast genera including Saccharomyces, Yarrowia, Candida, and Hansenula have GCN systems (Bode et al. (199) J. Basic. Microbiol. 30(1):31-5) and examples of GCN genes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Yarrowia lipolytica, and Candida albicans which are targets for modification to provide tolerance are listed in Table 4. Examples of GCN encoded proteins of Saccharomyces cerevisiae include SEQ ID NOs:50, 52, 54, 56, 58, and 60. Examples of GCN encoded proteins of Yarrowia lipolytica include SEQ ID NOs:62, 64, 66, and 68. Examples of GCN encoded proteins of Candida albicans include SEQ ID NOs:70, 72, and 74. In addition, homologs of GCN2 and GCN4 have been found in the mold Neurospora crassa (Paluh et al. (1988) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85(11):3728-3732).

Other GCN system target genes may be identified in the literature and in bioinformatics databases well known to the skilled person. Additionally, the sequences described herein or those recited in the art may be used to identify other homologs in nature. For example each of the GCN nucleic acid fragments described herein may be used to isolate genes encoding homologous proteins from the same or other yeasts. Isolation of homologous genes using sequence-dependent protocols is well known in the art. Examples of sequence-dependent protocols include, but are not limited to: 1.) methods of nucleic acid hybridization; 2.) methods of DNA and RNA amplification, as exemplified by various uses of nucleic acid amplification technologies [e.g., polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Mullis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,202; ligase chain reaction (LCR), Tabor, S. et al., Proc. Acad. Sci. USA 82:1074 (1985); or strand displacement amplification (SDA), Walker, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 89:392 (1992)]; and 3.) methods of library construction and screening by complementation.

For example, genes encoding similar proteins or polypeptides to the GCN genes described herein could be isolated directly by using all or a portion of the instant nucleic acid fragments as DNA hybridization probes to screen libraries from any desired yeast using methodology well known to those skilled in the art. Specific oligonucleotide probes based upon the disclosed nucleic acid sequences can be designed and synthesized by methods known in the art (Maniatis, supra). Moreover, the entire sequences can be used directly to synthesize DNA probes by methods known to the skilled artisan (e.g., random primers DNA labeling, nick translation or end-labeling techniques), or RNA probes using available in vitro transcription systems. In addition, specific primers can be designed and used to amplify a part of (or full-length of) the instant sequences. The resulting amplification products can be labeled directly during amplification reactions or labeled after amplification reactions, and used as probes to isolate full-length DNA fragments under conditions of appropriate stringency. Heterologous genes may also be identified using functional selections as illustrated by complementation selection for GCN function described in Paluh et al. (ibid.).

Typically, in PCR-type amplification techniques, the primers have different sequences and are not complementary to each other. Depending on the desired test conditions, the sequences of the primers should be designed to provide for both efficient and faithful replication of the target nucleic acid. Methods of PCR primer design are common and well known in the art (Thein and Wallace, “The use of oligonucleotides as specific hybridization probes in the Diagnosis of Genetic Disorders”, in Human Genetic Diseases: A Practical Approach, K. E. Davis Ed., (1986) pp 33-50, IRL: Herndon, Va.; and Rychlik, W., In Methods in Molecular Biology, White, B. A. Ed., (1993) Vol. 15, pp 31-39, PCR Protocols: Current Methods and Applications. Humania: Totowa, N.J.).

Generally two short segments of the described sequences may be used in polymerase chain reaction protocols to amplify longer nucleic acid fragments encoding homologous genes from DNA or RNA. The polymerase chain reaction may also be performed on a library of cloned nucleic acid fragments wherein the sequence of one primer is derived from the described nucleic acid fragments, and the sequence of the other primer takes advantage of the presence of the polyadenylic acid tracts to the 3′ end of the mRNA precursor encoding microbial genes.

Alternatively, the second primer sequence may be based upon sequences derived from the cloning vector. For example, the skilled artisan can follow the RACE protocol (Frohman et al., PNAS USA 85:8998 (1988)) to generate cDNAs by using PCR to amplify copies of the region between a single point in the transcript and the 3′ or 5′ end. Primers oriented in the 3′ and 5′ directions can be designed from the instant sequences. Using commercially available 3′ RACE or 5′ RACE systems (e.g., BRL, Gaithersburg, Md.), specific 3′ or 5′ cDNA fragments can be isolated (Ohara et al., PNAS USA 86:5673 (1989); Loh et al., Science 243:217 (1989)).

Alternatively, the described GCN sequences may be employed as hybridization reagents for the identification of homologs. The basic components of a nucleic acid hybridization test include a probe, a sample suspected of containing the gene or gene fragment of interest, and a specific hybridization method. Probes are typically single-stranded nucleic acid sequences that are complementary to the nucleic acid sequences to be detected. Probes are “hybridizable” to the nucleic acid sequence to be detected. The probe length can vary from 5 bases to tens of thousands of bases, and will depend upon the specific test to be done. Typically a probe length of about 15 bases to about 30 bases is suitable. Only part of the probe molecule need be complementary to the nucleic acid sequence to be detected. In addition, the complementarity between the probe and the target sequence need not be perfect. Hybridization does occur between imperfectly complementary molecules with the result that a certain fraction of the bases in the hybridized region are not paired with the proper complementary base.

Hybridization methods are well defined. Typically the probe and sample must be mixed under conditions that will permit nucleic acid hybridization. This involves contacting the probe and sample in the presence of an inorganic or organic salt under the proper concentration and temperature conditions. The probe and sample nucleic acids must be in contact for a long enough time that any possible hybridization between the probe and sample nucleic acid may occur. The concentration of probe or target in the mixture will determine the time necessary for hybridization to occur. The higher the probe or target concentration, the shorter the hybridization incubation time needed. Optionally, a chaotropic agent may be added. The chaotropic agent stabilizes nucleic acids by inhibiting nuclease activity. Furthermore, the chaotropic agent allows sensitive and stringent hybridization of short oligonucleotide probes at room temperature (Van Ness and Chen, Nucl. Acids Res. 19:5143-5151 (1991)). Suitable chaotropic agents include guanidinium chloride, guanidinium thiocyanate, sodium thiocyanate, lithium tetrachloroacetate, sodium perchlorate, rubidium tetrachloroacetate, potassium iodide and cesium trifluoroacetate, among others. Typically, the chaotropic agent will be present at a final concentration of about 3 M. If desired, one can add formamide to the hybridization mixture, typically 30-50% (v/v).

Various hybridization solutions can be employed. Typically, these comprise from about 20 to 60% volume, preferably 30%, of a polar organic solvent. A common hybridization solution employs about 30-50% v/v formamide, about 0.15 to 1 M sodium chloride, about 0.05 to 0.1 M buffers (e.g., sodium citrate, Tris-HCl, PIPES or HEPES (pH range about 6-9)), about 0.05 to 0.2% detergent (e.g., sodium dodecylsulfate), or between 0.5-20 mM EDTA, FICOLL (Pharmacia Inc.) (about 300-500 kdal), polyvinylpyrrolidone (about 250-500 kdal) and serum albumin. Also included in the typical hybridization solution will be unlabeled carrier nucleic acids from about 0.1 to 5 mg/mL, fragmented nucleic DNA (e.g., calf thymus or salmon sperm DNA, or yeast RNA), and optionally from about 0.5 to 2% wt/vol glycine. Other additives may also be included, such as volume exclusion agents that include a variety of polar water-soluble or swellable agents (e.g., polyethylene glycol), anionic polymers (e.g., polyacrylate or polymethylacrylate) and anionic saccharidic polymers (e.g., dextran sulfate).

Nucleic acid hybridization is adaptable to a variety of assay formats. One of the most suitable is the sandwich assay format. The sandwich assay is particularly adaptable to hybridization under non-denaturing conditions. A primary component of a sandwich-type assay is a solid support. The solid support has adsorbed to it or covalently coupled to it immobilized nucleic acid probe that is unlabeled and complementary to one portion of the sequence.

Alternatively, because GCN sequences are well known, and because sequencing of the genomes of fungi is prevalent (10 are completed, 71 others have been subjected to a whole genome shotgun approach and are being assembled while 42 others are in progress), suitable GCN system target genes may be identified on the basis of sequence similarity using bioinformatics approaches alone, which are well known to one skilled in the art.

Genetic Modification of General Control Response Genes in Yeast for Butanol Tolerance

Many methods for genetic modification of target genes are known to one skilled in the art and may be used to create the present yeast strains. Modifications that may be used to reduce or eliminate expression of a target protein are disruptions that include, but are not limited to, deletion of the entire gene or a portion of the gene encoding a Gcnp, inserting a DNA fragment into a GCN gene (in either the promoter or coding region) so that the protein is not expressed or expressed at lower levels, introducing a mutation into a GCn coding region which adds a stop codon or frame shift such that a functional protein is not expressed, and introducing one or more mutations into a GCN coding region to alter amino acids so that a non-functional or a less enzymatically active protein is expressed. In addition, expression of a GCN gene may be blocked by expression of an antisense RNA or an interfering RNA, and constructs may be introduced that result in cosuppression. Moreover, a GCN gene may be synthesized whose expression is low because rare codons are substituted for plentiful ones, and this gene substituted for the endogenous corresponding GCN gene. Such a gene will produce the same polypeptide but at a lower rate. In addition, the synthesis or stability of the transcript may be lessened by mutation. Similarly the efficiency by which a protein is translated from mRNA may be modulated by mutation. All of these methods may be readily practiced by one skilled in the art making use of the known sequences encoding Gcn proteins. Yeast GCN sequences are publicly available, and representative sequences are listed in Table 4. One skilled in the art may choose specific modification strategies to eliminate or lower the expression of a GCN gene as desired to increase butanol tolerance.

DNA sequences surrounding a GCN coding sequence are also useful in some modification procedures and are available for yeasts such as for Saccharomycse cerevisiae in the complete genome sequence coordinated by Genome Project ID9518 of Genome Projects coordinated by NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) with identifying GOPID #13838. Additional examples of yeast genomic sequences include that of Yarrowia lipolytica, GOPIC #13837, and of Candida albicans, which is included in GPID #10771, #10701 and #16373. Other yeast genomic sequences can be readily found by one of skill in the art in publicly available databases.

In particular, DNA sequences surrounding a GCN coding sequence are useful for modification methods using homologous recombination. For example, in this method GCN gene flanking sequences are placed bounding a selectable marker gene to mediate homologous recombination whereby the marker gene replaces the GCN gene. Also partial GCN gene sequences and GCN flanking sequences bounding a selectable marker gene may be used to mediate homologous recombination whereby the marker gene replaces a portion of the target GCN gene. In addition, the selectable marker may be bounded by site-specific recombination sites, so that following expression of the corresponding site-specific recombinase, the resistance gene is excised from the GCN gene without reactivating the latter. The site-specific recombination leaves behind a recombination site which disrupts expression of the Gcn protein. The homologous recombination vector may be constructed to also leave a deletion in the GCN gene following excision of the selectable marker, as is well known to one skilled in the art.

Deletions may be made using mitotic recombination as described in Wach et al. ((1994) Yeast 10:1793-1808). This method involves preparing a DNA fragment that contains a selectable marker between genomic regions that may be as short as 20 bp, and which bound a target DNA sequence. This DNA fragment can be prepared by PCR amplification of the selectable marker gene using as primers oligonucleotides that hybridize to the ends of the marker gene and that include the genomic regions that can recombine with the yeast genome. The linear DNA fragment can be efficiently transformed into yeast and recombined into the genome resulting in gene replacement including with deletion of the target DNA sequence (as described in Methods in Enzymology, v194, pp 281-301 (1991)).

Moreover, promoter replacement methods may be used to exchange the endogenous transcriptional control elements allowing another means to modulate expression such as described in Mnaimneh et al. ((2004) Cell 118(1):31-44).

Butanol Tolerance of the Present Modified Yeast Strain

A yeast strain of the present invention that is genetically modified for reduced response in the general control response for amino acid starvation has improved tolerance to butanol. The tolerance of reduced response strains may be assessed by assaying their growth in concentrations of butanol that are detrimental to growth of the parental (prior to genetic modification) strains. Improved tolerance is to butanol compounds including 1-butanol, isobutanol, and 2-butanol. The amount of tolerance observed will vary depending on the inhibiting chemical and its concentration, growth conditions, growth period, and the specific genetically modified strain. For example, as shown in Example 1 herein, improved tolerance was observed with growth in 1%-2% isobutanol for 8 hours in a medium lacking amino acids other than histidine and leucine. In this medium the cells have more biosynthetic demand than is the case in rich medium, which contains histidine and leucine. Other conditions for demonstration of the improved butanol tolerance of the present yeast strains include conditions where biosynthetic demand is higher than in rich medium conditions, including a lack of any metabolic product, such as other amino acids, nucleotides, or fatty acids. Additionally the presence of inhibitors, osmotic imbalance, or other non-ideal growth conditions may provide conditions for demonstration of improved butanol tolerance.

Butanol Biosynthetic Pathway

In the present invention, a genetic modification conferring increased butanol tolerance, as described above, is engineered in a yeast cell that is engineered to express a butanol biosynthetic pathway. Either genetic modification may take place prior to the other.

The butanol biosynthetic pathway may be a 1-butanol, 2-butanol, or isobutanol biosynthetic pathway. Particularly suitable yeast hosts for the production of butanol and modification of the general control response to amino acid starvation for increased butanol tolerance include, but are not limited to, members of the genera Saccharomyces, Candida, Hansenula and Yarowia. Preferred hosts include Saccharomyces cerevesiae, Candida albicans and Yarowia lipolytica.

1-Butanol Biosynthetic Pathway

A biosynthetic pathway for the production of 1-butanol is described by Donaldson et al. in co-pending and commonly owned U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 0080182308, incorporated herein by reference. This biosynthetic pathway comprises the following substrate to product conversions:

-   -   a) acetyl-CoA to acetoacetyl-CoA, as catalyzed for example by         acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase with protein sequence such as SEQ         ID NO:2, 4 or 40 encoded by the genes given as SEQ ID NO:1, 3 or         39;     -   b) acetoacetyl-CoA to 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA, as catalyzed for         example by 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydrogenase with protein         sequence such as SEQ ID NO:6 encoded by the gene given as SEQ ID         NO:5;     -   c) 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA, as catalyzed for         example by crotonase with protein sequence such as SEQ ID NO:8         encoded by the gene given as SEQ ID NO:7;     -   d) crotonyl-CoA to butyryl-CoA, as catalyzed for example by         butyryl-CoA dehydrogenase with protein sequence such as SEQ ID         NO:10 encoded by the gene given as SEQ ID NO:9;     -   e) butyryl-CoA to butyraldehyde, as catalyzed for example by         butyraldehyde dehydrogenase with protein sequence such as SEQ ID         NO:12 encoded by the gene given as SEQ ID NO:11; and     -   f) butyraldehyde to 1-butanol, as catalyzed for example by         1-butanol dehydrogenase with protein sequence such as SEQ ID         NO:14 or 16 encoded by the genes given as SEQ ID NO:13 or 15.

The pathway requires no ATP and generates NAD⁺ and/or NADP⁺, thus, it balances with the central, metabolic routes that generate acetyl-CoA.

2-Butanol Biosynthetic Pathway

Biosynthetic pathways for the production of 2-butanol are described by Donaldson et al. in co-pending and commonly owned U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 20070259410 and 20070292927, each incorporated herein by reference. One 2-butanol biosynthetic pathway comprises the following substrate to product conversions:

-   -   a) pyruvate to alpha-acetolactate, as catalyzed for example by         acetolactate synthase with protein sequence such as SEQ ID NO:20         encoded by the gene given as SEQ ID NO:19;     -   b) alpha-acetolactate to acetoin, as catalyzed for example by         acetolactate decarboxylase with protein sequence such as SEQ ID         NO:18 encoded by the gene given as SEQ ID NO:17;     -   c) acetoin to 2,3-butanediol, as catalyzed for example by         butanediol dehydrogenase with protein sequence such as SEQ ID         NO:22 encoded by the gene given as SEQ ID NO:21;     -   d) 2,3-butanediol to 2-butanone, catalyzed for example by         butanediol dehydratase with protein sequence such as SEQ ID         NO:24, 26, or 28 encoded by genes given as SEQ ID NO:23, 25, or         27; and     -   e) 2-butanone to 2-butanol, as catalyzed for example by         2-butanol dehydrogenase with protein sequence such as SEQ ID         NO:30 encoded by the gene given as SEQ ID NO:29.

Isobutanol Biosynthetic Pathway

Biosynthetic pathways for the production of isobutanol are described by Maggio-Hall et al. in copending and commonly owned U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20070092957, incorporated herein by reference. One isobutanol biosynthetic pathway comprises the following substrate to product conversions:

-   -   a) pyruvate to acetolactate, as catalyzed for example by         acetolactate synthase with protein sequence such as SEQ ID NO:20         or 42 encoded by genes given as SEQ ID NO:19 or 41;     -   b) acetolactate to 2,3-dihydroxyisovalerate, as catalyzed for         example by acetohydroxy acid isomeroreductase with protein         sequence such as SEQ ID NO:32, 44 or 46 encoded by genes given         as SEQ ID NO:31, 43 or 45;     -   c) 2,3-dihydroxyisovalerate to α-ketoisovalerate, as catalyzed         for example by acetohydroxy acid dehydratase with protein         sequence such as SEQ ID NO:34 encoded by the gene given as SEQ         ID NO:33; or dihydroxyacid dehydratase with protein sequence         such as SEQ ID NO:48 encoded by the gene given as SEQ ID NO:47;     -   d) α-ketoisovalerate to isobutyraldehyde, as catalyzed for         example by a branched-chain keto acid decarboxylase with protein         sequence such as SEQ ID NO:36 encoded by the gene given as SEQ         ID NO:35; and     -   e) isobutyraldehyde to isobutanol, as catalyzed for example by a         branched-chain alcohol dehydrogenase with protein sequence such         as SEQ ID NO:38 encoded by the gene given as SEQ ID NO:37.

Construction of Yeast Strains for Butanol Production

Any yeast strain that is genetically modified for butanol tolerance as described herein is additionally genetically modified (before or after modification to tolerance) to incorporate a butanol biosynthetic pathway by methods well known to one skilled in the art. Genes encoding the enzyme activities described above, or homologs that may be identified and obtained by commonly used methods, such as those described above, that are well known to one skilled in the art, are introduced into a yeast host. Representative coding and amino acid sequences for pathway enzymes that may be used are given in Tables 1, 2, and 3, with SEQ ID NOs:1-48.

Methods for gene expression in yeasts are known in the art; specifically, basic yeast molecular biology protocols including transformation, cell growth, gene expression, gap repair recombination, etc. are described in Methods in Enzymology, Volume 194, Guide to Yeast Genetics and Molecular and Cell Biology (Part A, 2004, Christine Guthrie and Gerald R. Fink (Eds.), Elsevier Academic Press, San Diego, Calif. Expression of a gene in yeast typically requires a promoter, followed by the coding region of interest, and a transcriptional terminator, all of which are operably linked to provide expression cassettes. A number of yeast promoters can be used in constructing expression cassettes for genes encoding a butanol biosynthetic pathway, including, but not limited to constitutive promoters FBA, GPD, and GPM, and the inducible promoters GAL1, GAL10, and CUP1. Suitable transcriptional terminators include, but are not limited to FBAt, GPDt, GPMt, ERG10t, and GAL1t. For example, suitable promoters, transcriptional terminators, and the genes of a 1-butanol or isobutanol biosynthetic pathway may be cloned into E. coli-yeast shuttle vectors, as described in Example 2.

Typically used plasmids in yeast are shuttle vectors pRS423, pRS424, pRS425, and pRS426 (American Type Culture Collection, Rockville, Md.), which contain an E. coli replication origin (e.g., pMB1), a yeast 2μ origin of replication, and a marker for nutritional selection. The selection markers for these four vectors are His3 (vector pRS423), Trp1 (vector pRS424), Leu2 (vector pRS425) and Ura3 (vector pRS426). These vectors allow strain propagation in both E. coli and yeast strains. Typical hosts for gene cloning and expression include a yeast haploid strain BY4741 (MA Ta his3Δ1 leu2Δ0 met15Δ0 ura3Δ0) (Research Genetics, Huntsville, Ala., also available from ATCC 201388) and a diploid strain BY4743 (MA Ta/alpha his3Δ1/his3Δ1 leu2Δ0/leu2Δ0 lys2Δ0/LYS2 MET15/met15Δ0 ura3Δ0/ura3Δ0) (Research Genetics, Huntsville, Ala., also available from ATCC 201390). Construction of expression vectors for genes encoding butanol biosynthetic pathway enzymes may be performed by either standard molecular cloning techniques in E. coli or by the gap repair recombination method in yeast.

The gap repair cloning approach takes advantage of the highly efficient homologous recombination in yeast. Typically, a yeast vector DNA is digested (e.g., in its multiple cloning site) to create a “gap” in its sequence. A number of insert DNAs of interest are generated that contain a ≧21 bp sequence at both the 5′ and the 3′ ends that sequentially overlap with each other, and with the 5′ and 3′ terminus of the vector DNA. For example, to construct a yeast expression vector for “Gene X’, a yeast promoter and a yeast terminator are selected for the expression cassette. The promoter and terminator are amplified from the yeast genomic DNA, and Gene X is either PCR amplified from its source organism or obtained from a cloning vector comprising Gene X sequence. There is at least a 21 bp overlapping sequence between the 5′ end of the linearized vector and the promoter sequence, between the promoter and Gene X, between Gene X and the terminator sequence, and between the terminator and the 3′ end of the linearized vector. The “gapped” vector and the insert DNAs are then co-transformed into a yeast strain and plated on the medium containing the appropriate compound mixtures that allow complementation of the nutritional selection markers on the plasmids. The presence of correct insert combinations can be confirmed by PCR mapping using plasmid DNA prepared from the selected cells. The plasmid DNA isolated from yeast (usually low in concentration) can then be transformed into an E. coli strain, e.g. TOP10, followed by mini preps and restriction mapping to further verify the plasmid construct. Finally the construct can be verified by sequence analysis. Yeast transformants of positive plasmids are grown for performing enzyme assays to characterize the activities of the enzymes expressed by the genes of interest.

Fermentation Media

Fermentation media in the present invention must contain suitable carbon substrates. Suitable substrates may include but are not limited to monosaccharides such as glucose and fructose, oligosaccharides such as lactose or sucrose, polysaccharides such as starch or cellulose or mixtures thereof and unpurified mixtures from renewable feedstocks such as cheese whey permeate, cornsteep liquor, sugar beet molasses, and barley malt. Additionally the carbon substrate may also be one-carbon substrates such as carbon dioxide, or methanol for which metabolic conversion into key biochemical intermediates has been demonstrated. In addition to one and two carbon substrates methylotrophic organisms are also known to utilize a number of other carbon containing compounds such as methylamine, glucosamine and a variety of amino acids for metabolic activity. For example, methylotrophic yeast are known to utilize the carbon from methylamine to form trehalose or glycerol (Bellion et al., Microb. Growth C1Compd., [Int. Symp.], 7th (1993), 415-32. Editor(s): Murrell, J. Collin; Kelly, Don P. Publisher: Intercept, Andover, UK). Similarly, various species of Candida will metabolize alanine or oleic acid (Sutter et al., Arch. Microbiol. 153:485-489 (1990)). Hence it is contemplated that the source of carbon utilized in the present invention may encompass a wide variety of carbon containing substrates and will only be limited by the choice of organism.

Although it is contemplated that all of the above mentioned carbon substrates and mixtures thereof are suitable in the present invention, preferred carbon substrates are glucose, fructose, and sucrose.

In addition to an appropriate carbon source, fermentation media must contain suitable minerals, salts, cofactors, buffers and other components, known to those skilled in the art, suitable for the growth of the cultures and promotion of the enzymatic pathway necessary for butanol production.

Culture Conditions

Typically cells are grown at a temperature in the range of about 20° C. to about 37° C. in an appropriate medium. Suitable growth media in the present invention are common commercially prepared media such as broth that includes yeast nitrogen base, ammonium sulfate, and dextrose as the carbon/energy source) or YPD Medium, a blend of peptone, yeast extract, and dextrose in optimal proportions for growing most Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains. Other defined or synthetic growth media may also be used and the appropriate medium for growth of the particular microorganism will be known by one skilled in the art of microbiology or fermentation science.

Suitable pH ranges for the fermentation are between pH 3.0 to pH 7.5, where pH 4.5.0 to pH 6.5 is preferred as the initial condition.

Fermentations may be performed under aerobic or anaerobic conditions, where anaerobic or microaerobic conditions are preferred.

The amount of butanol produced in the fermentation medium can be determined using a number of methods known in the art, for example, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or gas chromatography (GC).

Methods for Butanol Isolation from the Fermentation Medium

The bioproduced butanol may be isolated from the fermentation medium using methods known in the art. For example, solids may be removed from the fermentation medium by centrifugation, filtration, decantation, or the like. Then, the butanol may be isolated from the fermentation medium, which has been treated to remove solids as described above, using methods such as distillation, liquid-liquid extraction, or membrane-based separation. Because butanol forms a low boiling point, azeotropic mixture with water, distillation can only be used to separate the mixture up to its azeotropic composition. Distillation may be used in combination with another separation method to obtain separation around the azeotrope. Methods that may be used in combination with distillation to isolate and purify butanol include, but are not limited to, decantation, liquid-liquid extraction, adsorption, and membrane-based techniques. Additionally, butanol may be isolated using azeotropic distillation using an entrainer (see for example Doherty and Malone, Conceptual Design of Distillation Systems, McGraw Hill, New York, 2001).

The butanol-water mixture forms a heterogeneous azeotrope so that distillation may be used in combination with decantation to isolate and purify the butanol. In this method, the butanol containing fermentation broth is distilled to near the azeotropic composition. Then, the azeotropic mixture is condensed, and the butanol is separated from the fermentation medium by decantation. The decanted aqueous phase may be returned to the first distillation column as reflux. The butanol-rich decanted organic phase may be further purified by distillation in a second distillation column.

The butanol may also be isolated from the fermentation medium using liquid-liquid extraction in combination with distillation. In this method, the butanol is extracted from the fermentation broth using liquid-liquid extraction with a suitable solvent. The butanol-containing organic phase is then distilled to separate the butanol from the solvent.

Distillation in combination with adsorption may also be used to isolate butanol from the fermentation medium. In this method, the fermentation broth containing the butanol is distilled to near the azeotropic composition and then the remaining water is removed by use of an adsorbent, such as molecular sieves (Aden et al. Lignocellulosic Biomass to Ethanol Process Design and Economics Utilizing Co-Current Dilute Acid Prehydrolysis and Enzymatic Hydrolysis for Corn Stover, Report NREL/TP-510-32438, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, June 2002).

Additionally, distillation in combination with pervaporation may be used to isolate and purify the butanol from the fermentation medium. In this method, the fermentation broth containing the butanol is distilled to near the azeotropic composition, and then the remaining water is removed by pervaporation through a hydrophilic membrane (Guo et al., J. Membr. Sci. 245, 199-210 (2004)).

EXAMPLES

The present invention is further defined in the following Examples. It should be understood that these Examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only. From the above discussion and these Examples, one skilled in the art can ascertain the essential characteristics of this invention, and without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, can make various changes and modifications of the invention to adapt it to various uses and conditions.

General Methods

Standard recombinant DNA and molecular cloning techniques used in the Examples are well known in the art and are described by Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E. F. and Maniatis, T. Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press: Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. (1989) (Maniatis) and by T. J. Silhavy, M. L. Bennan, and L. W. Enquist, Experiments with Gene Fusions, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. (1984) and by Ausubel, F. M. et al., Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, pub. by Greene Publishing Assoc. and Wiley-Interscience (1987).

Materials and Methods suitable for the maintenance and growth of bacterial cultures are well known in the art. Techniques suitable for use in the following Examples may be found as set out in Manual of Methods for General Bacteriology (Phillipp Gerhardt, R. G. E. Murray, Ralph N. Costilow, Eugene W. Nester, Willis A. Wood, Noel R. Krieg and G. Briggs Phillips, eds), American Society for Microbiology, Washington, D.C. (1994)) or by Thomas D. Brock in Biotechnology: A Textbook of Industrial Microbiology, Second Edition, Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, Mass. (1989). All reagents, restriction enzymes and materials used for the growth and maintenance of bacterial cells were obtained from Aldrich Chemicals (Milwaukee, Wis.), BD Diagnostic Systems (Sparks, Md.), Life Technologies (Rockville, Md.), or Sigma Chemical Company (St. Louis, Mo.) unless otherwise specified.

Microbial strains were obtained from The American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), Manassas, Va., unless otherwise noted.

Methods for Determining Isobutanol Concentration in Culture Media

The concentration of isobutanol in the culture media can be determined by a number of methods known in the art. For example, a specific high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method utilizes a Shodex SH-1011 column with a Shodex SH-G guard column, both purchased from Waters Corporation (Milford, Mass.), with refractive index (R1) detection. Chromatographic separation is achieved using 0.01 M H₂SO₄ as the mobile phase with a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min and a column temperature of 50° C. Isobutanol has a retention time of 46.6 min under the conditions described. Alternatively, gas chromatography (GC) methods are available. For example, a specific GC method utilizes an HP-INNOWax column (30 m×0.53 mm id, 1 μm film thickness, Agilent Technologies, Wilmington, Del.), with a flame ionization detector (FID). The carrier gas is helium at a flow rate of 4.5 mL/min, measured at 150° C. with constant head pressure; injector split is 1:25 at 200° C.; oven temperature ias 45° C. for 1 min, 45 to 220° C. at 10° C./min, and 220° C. for 5 min; and FID detection is employed at 240° C. with 26 mL/min helium makeup gas. The retention time of isobutanol is 4.5 min.

The meaning of abbreviations is as follows: “s” means second(s), “min” means minute(s), “h” means hour(s), “psi” means pounds per square inch, “nm” means nanometers, “d” means day(s), “μL” means microliter(s), “mL” means milliliter(s), “L” means liter(s), “mm” means millimeter(s), “nm” means nanometers, “mM” means millimolar, “μM” means micromolar, “M” means molar, “mmol” means millimole(s), “μmol” means micromole(s)”, “g” means gram(s), “μg” means microgram(s) and “ng” means nanogram(s), “PCR” means polymerase chain reaction, “OD” means optical density, “OD₆₀₀” means the optical density measured at a wavelength of 600 nm, “kDa” means kilodaltons, “g” means the gravitation constant, “bp” means base pair(s), “kbp” means kilobase pair(s), “% w/v” means weight/volume percent, % v/v″ means volume/volume percent, “HPLC” means high performance liquid chromatography, and “GC” means gas chromatography. The term “molar selectivity” is the number of moles of product produced per mole of sugar substrate consumed and is reported as a percent.

Example 1 Butanol tolerance in qcn2 and qcn4 mutants

GCN2 gene and GCN4 gene deletion mutants of the diploid a/a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain BY4743 (Brachmann et al. (Yeast 14:115-132 (1998)) are available in a nearly complete, ordered deletion strain collection (Giaever et al. Nature 418, 387-391 (2002); Saccharomyces Genome Deletion Project). Cells of the GCN2 gene and GCN4 gene deletion mutants were grown overnight from a single colony on a YPD plate in either YPD or YVCM medium (recipes below) in a 14 ml Falcon tube at 30° C. with shaking at 250 rpm. Overnight cultures were diluted 1:100 (2 ml to 200 ml) in the same medium and growth was monitored every 60 minutes until 1 doubling had occurred. At that point the cultures were split into 25 ml samples that were dispensed to separate 125 ml plastic flasks. Challenging concentrations of isobutanol ranging between 0.5% and 2% w/v were added to all but one flask of each culture that served as the positive control. Control and challenge cultures were incubated with shaking in a 30° C. water bath and absorbance was monitored on about an hourly basis.

The two media used were a rich medium, YPD, which contains per liter: 10 g yeast extract, 20 g peptone, 20 g dextrose; and a defined, synthetic medium, YVCM, which contains per liter: 6.67 g yeast nitrogen base without amino acids but with ammonium sulfate, 20 g dextrose, 20 mg L-histidine, 30 mg L-leucine, 20 mg uracil.

Using 8 and 24 hr time points for growth in YVCM containing isobutanol, fractional growth yields were determined and results are given in FIG. 1. Both GCN2 and GCN4 deletion lines that were grown in the synthetic medium were substantially more tolerant to an 8 hr isobutanol challenge than the parental strain. The accrued advantage disappeared after overnight incubation. The increased tolerance was seen over a 1-2% isobutanol concentration range.

Using 7 and 23 hr time points for growth in YPD containing isobutanol, fractional growth yields were determined and results are given in FIG. 2. In these conditions improved tolerance was not observed at the short time point, and minimal improvement was seen with the GCN2 and GCN4 mutations in different isobutanol concentrations.

Example 2 Expression of Isobutanol Pathway Genes in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae

To express isobutanol pathway genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a number of E. coli-yeast shuttle vectors were constructed. A PCR approach (Yu, et al. Fungal Genet. Biol. 41:973-981 (2004)) was used to fuse genes with yeast promoters and terminators. Specifically, the GPD promoter (SEQ ID NO:76) and CYC1 terminator (SEQ ID NO:77) were fused to the aIsS gene from Bacillus subtilis (SEQ ID NO:41), the FBA promoter (SEQ ID NO:78) and CYC1 terminator were fused to the ILV5 gene from S. cerevisiae (SEQ ID NO:43), the ADH1 promoter (SEQ ID NO:79) and ADH1 terminator (SEQ ID NO:80) were fused to the ILV3 gene from S. cerevisiae (SEQ ID NO:47), and the GPM promoter (SEQ ID NO:81) and ADH1 terminator were fused to the kivD gene from Lactococcus lactis (SEQ ID NO:35). The primers, given in Table 5, were designed to include restriction sites for cloning promoter/gene/terminator products into E. coli-yeast shuttle vectors from the pRS400 series (Christianson et al. Gene 110:119-122 (1992)) and for exchanging promoters between constructs. Primers for the 5′ ends of ILV5 and ILV3 (N138 and N155, respectively, given as SEQ ID NOs: 92 and 104, respectively) generated new start codons to eliminate mitochondrial targeting of these enzymes.

All fused PCR products were first cloned into pCR4-Blunt by TOPO cloning reaction (Invitrogen) and the sequences were confirmed (using M13 forward and reverse primers (Invitrogen) and the sequencing primers provided in Table 5. Two additional promoters (CUP1 and GAL1) were cloned by TOPO reaction into pCR4-Blunt and confirmed by sequencing; primer sequences are indicated in Table 5. The plasmids that were constructed are described in Table 6. The plasmids were transformed into either Saccharomyces cerevisiae BY4743 (ATCC 201390) or YJR148w (ATCC 4036939) to assess enzyme specific activities. For the determination of enzyme activities, cultures were grown to an OD₆₀₀ of 1.0 in synthetic complete medium (Methods in Yeast Genetics, 2005, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., pp. 201-202) lacking any metabolite(s) necessary for selection of the expression plasmid(s), harvested by centrifugation (2600×g for 8 min at 4° C.), washed with buffer, centrifuged again, and frozen at −80° C. The cells were thawed, resuspended in 20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0 to a final volume of 2 mL, and then disrupted using a bead beater with 1.2 g of glass beads (0.5 mm size). Each sample was processed on high speed for 3 minutes total (with incubation on ice after each minute of beating). Extracts were cleared of cell debris by centrifugation (20,000×g for 10 min at 4° C.).

Acetolactate synthase activity in the cell free extracts is measured using the method described by Bauerle et al. (Biochim. Biophys. Acta 92(1):142-149 (1964)). Acetohydroxy acid reductoisomerase activity in the cell free extracts is measured using the method described by Arlin and Umbarger (J. Biol. Chem. 244(5):1118-1127 (1969)). Acetohydroxy acid dehydratase activity in the cell free extracts is measured using the method described by Flint et al. (J. Biol. Chem. 268(20):14732-14742 (1993)). Branched-chain keto acid decarboxylase activity in the cell free extracts is measured using the method described by Smit et al. (Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 64:396-402 (2003)), except that Purpald® reagent (Aldrich, Catalog No. 162892) is used to detect and quantify the aldehyde reaction products.

TABLE 5 Primer Sequences for Cloning and Sequencing of S. cerevisiae Expression Vectors Name Sequence Description SEQ ID NO N98SeqF1 CGTGTTAGTCACATCAGGAC B. subtilis alsS 82 sequencing primer N98SeqF2 GGCCATAGCAAAAATCCAAACAG

B. subtilis alsS 83 sequencing primer N98SeqF3 CCACGATCAATCATATCGAACAC

B. subtilis alsS 84 sequencing primer N98SeqF4 GGTTTCTGTCTCTGGTGACG B. subtilis alsS 85 sequencing primer N99SeqR1 GTCTGGTGATTCTACGCGCAAG B. subtilis alsS 86 sequencing primer N99SeqR2 CATCGACTGCATTACGCAACTC B. subtilis alsS 87 sequencing primer N99SeqR3 CGATCGTCAGAACAACATCTGC B. subtilis alsS 88 sequencing primer N99SeqR4 CCTTCAGTGTTCGCTGTCAG B. subtilis alsS 89 sequencing primer N136 CCGCGGATAGATCTGAAATGAAT

FBA promoter forwar

90 CAATACTGACA primer with SacII/Bgl

sites N137 TACCACCGAAGTTGATTTGCTTCA FBA promoter revers

91 CATCCTCAGCTCTAGATTTGAATA primer with BbvCI sit

GTATTACTTGGTTAT and ILV5-annealing region N138 ATGTTGAAGCAAATCAACTTCGGT ILV5 forward primer 92 GTA (creates alternate sta

codon) N139 TTATTGGTTTTCTGGTCTCAAC ILV5 reverse primer 93 N140 AAGTTGAGACCAGAAAACCAATAA CYC terminator 94 TAATTAATCATGTAATTAGTTATGT forward primer with ACGCTT PacI site and ILV5- annealing region N141 GCGGCCGCCCGCAAATTAAAGCC CYC terminator 95 TCGAGC reverse primer with NotI site N142 GGATCCGCATGCTTGCATTTAGT

GPM promoter forwa

96 TGC primer with BamHI si

N143 CAGGTAATCCCCCACAGTATACA

GPM promoter rever

97 CTCAGCTATTGTAATATGTGTGTT

primer with BbvCI sit

GTTTGG and kivD-annealing region N144 ATGTATACTGTGGGGGATTACC kivD forward primer 98 N145 TTAGCTTTTATTTTGCTCCGCA kivD reverse primer 99 N146 TTTGCGGAGCAAAATAAAAGCTAA ADH terminator 100 TAATTAAGAGTAAGCGAATTTCTT

forward primer with GATTTA PacI site and kivD- annealing region N147 ACTAGTACCACAGGTGTTGTCCT

ADH terminator 101 GAG reverse primer with SpeI site N151 CTAGAGAGCTTTCGTTTTCATG alsS reverse primer 102 N152 CTCATGAAAACGAAAGCTCTCTAG CYC terminator 103 TAATTAATCATGTAATTAGTTATGT forward primer with ACGCTT PacI site and alsS- annealing region N155 ATGGCAAAGAAGCTCAACAAGTA

ILV3 forward primer 104 (alternate start codo

N156 TCAAGCATCTAAAACACAACCG ILV3 reverse primer 105 N157 AACGGTTGTGTTTTAGATGCTTGA ADH terminator 106 TAATTAAGAGTAAGCGAATTTCTT

forward primer with GATTTA PacI site and ILV3- annealing region N158 GGATCCTTTTCTGGCAACCAAAC

ADH promoter forwa

107 ATA primer with BamHI si

N159 CGAGTACTTGTTGAGCTTCTTTGC ADH promoter revers

108 ATCCTCAGCGAGATAGTTGATTGT primer with BbvCI sit

TGCTTG and ILV3-annealing region N160SeqF1 GAAAACGTGGCATCCTCTC FBA::ILV5::CYC 109 sequencing primer N160SeqF2 GCTGACTGGCCAAGAGAAA FBA::ILV5::CYC 110 sequencing primer N160SeqF3 TGTACTTCTCCCACGGTTTC FBA::ILV5::CYC 111 sequencing primer N160SeqF4 AGCTACCCAATCTCTATACCCA FBA::ILV5::CYC 112 sequencing primer N160SeqF5 CCTGAAGTCTAGGTCCCTATTT FBA::ILV5::CYC 113 sequencing primer N160SeqR1 GCGTGAATGTAAGCGTGAC FBA::ILV5::CYC 114 sequencing primer N160SeqR2 CGTCGTATTGAGCCAAGAAC FBA::ILV5::CYC 115 sequencing primer N160SeqR3 GCATCGGACAACAAGTTCAT FBA::ILV5::CYC 116 sequencing primer N160SeqR4 TCGTTCTTGAAGTAGTCCAACA FBA::ILV5::CYC 117 sequencing primer N160SeqR5 TGAGCCCGAAAGAGAGGAT FBA::ILV5::CYC 118 sequencing primer N161SeqF1 ACGGTATACGGCCTTCCTT ADH::ILV3::ADH 119 sequencing primer N161SeqF2 GGGTTTGAAAGCTATGCAGT ADH::ILV3::ADH 120 sequencing primer N161SeqF3 GGTGGTATGTATACTGCCAACA ADH::ILV3::ADH 121 sequencing primer N161SeqF4 GGTGGTACCCAATCTGTGATTA ADH::ILV3::ADH 122 sequencing primer N161SeqF5 CGGTTTGGGTAAAGATGTTG ADH::ILV3::ADH 123 sequencing primer N161SeqF6 AAACGAAAATTCTTATTCTTGA ADH::ILV3::ADH  124 sequencing primer N161SeqR1 TCGTTTTAAAACCTAAGAGTCA ADH::ILV3::ADH 125 sequencing primer N161SeqR2 CCAAACCGTAACCCATCAG ADH::ILV3::ADH 126 sequencing primer N161SeqR3 CACAGATTGGGTACCACCA ADH::ILV3::ADH 127 sequencing primer N161SeqR4 ACCACAAGAACCAGGACCTG ADH:ILV3::ADH 128 sequencing primer N161SeqR5 CATAGCTTTCAAACCCGCT ADH::ILV3::ADH 129 sequencing primer N161SeqR6 CGTATACCGTTGCTCATTAGAG ADH::ILV3::ADH 130 sequencing primer N162 ATGTTGACAAAAGCAACAAAAGA alsS forward primer 131 N189 ATCCGCGGATAGATCTAGTTCGA

GPD forward primer 132 TTATCATTATCAA with SacII/BglII sites N190.1 TTCTTTTGTTGCTTTTGTCAACAT

GPD promoter revers

133 TCAGCGTTTATGTGTGTTTATTCG

primer with BbvCI sit

AA and alsS-annealing region N176 ATCCGCGGATAGATCTATTAGAA

GAL1 promoter 134 CGCCGAGCGGGCG forward primer with SacII/BglII sites N177 ATCCTCAGCTTTTCTCCTTGACGT GAL1 promoter 135 AAAGTA reverse with BbvCI si

N191 ATCCGCGGATAGATCTCCCATTA

CUP1 promoter 136 GACATTTGGGCGC forward primer with SacII/BglII sites N192 ATCCTCAGCGATGATTGATTGATT CUP1 promoter 137 ATTGTA reverse with BbvCI si

indicates data missing or illegible when filed

TABLE 6 E. coli-Yeast Shuttle Vectors Carrying Isobutanol Pathway Genes Plasmid Name Construction pRS426 [ATCC No. 77107], — URA3 selection pRS426::GPD::alsS::CYC GPD::alsS::CYC PCR product digested with SacII/NotI cloned into pRS426 digested with same pRS426::FBA::ILV5::CYC FBA::ILV5::CYC PCR product digested with SacII/NotI cloned into pRS426 digested with same pRS425 [ATCC No. 77106], — LEU2 selection pRS425::ADH::ILV3::ADH ADH::ILV3::ADH PCR product digested with BamHI/Spe

cloned into pRS425 digested with same pRS425::GPM::kivD::ADH GPM::kivD::ADH PCR product digested with BamHI/Spe

cloned into pRS425 digested with same pRS426::CUP1::alsS 7.7 kbp SacII/BbvCI fragment from pRS426::GPD::alsS::CYC ligated with SacII/BbvCI CUP

fragment pRS426::GAL1::ILV5 7 kbp SacII/BbvCI fragment from pRS426::FBA::ILV5::CYC ligated with SacII/BbvCI GAL

fragment pRS425::FBA::ILV3 8.9 kbp BamHI/BbvCI fragment from pRS425::ADH::ILV3::ADH ligated with 0.65 kbp BglII/BbvCI FBA fragment from pRS426::FBA::ILV5::CY

pRS425::CUP1-alsS + FBA-ILV

2.4 kbp SacII/NotI fragment from pRS426::CUP1::alsS cloned into pRS425::FBA::ILV3 cut with SacII/NotI pRS426::FBA-ILV5 + GPM-kiv

2.7 kbp BamHI/SpeI fragment from pRS425::GPM::kivD::ADH cloned into pRS426::FBA::ILV5::CYC cut with BamHI/SpeI pRS426::GAL1-FBA + GPM-kiv

8.5 kbp SacII/NotI fragment from pRS426:: FBA- ILV5 + GPM-kivD ligated with 1.8 kbp SacII/NotI fragment from pRS426::GAL1::ILV5 pRS423 [ATCC No. 77104], — HIS3 selection pRS423::CUP1-alsS + FBA-ILV

5.2 kbp SacI/SalI fragment from pRS425::CUP1- alsS + FBA-ILV3 ligated into pRS423 cut with SacI/SalI pHR81 [ATCC No. 87541], — URA3 and leu2-d selection pHR81::FBA-ILV5 + GPM-kivD 4.7 kbp SacI/BamHI fragment from pRS426::FBA- ILV5 + GPM-kivD ligated into pHR81 cut with SacI/BamH

indicates data missing or illegible when filed

Example 3 Prophetic Production of Isobutanol Using Tolerant Saccharomyces cerevisiae Strain

The starting strain for this work is BY4741 (Brachmann, et al. Yeast. 14: 115-132 (1998)) and its Δbat2 derivative, YJR148W BY4741, mating type a (6939) available from the ATCC (#406939) with the genotype MATa his3delta1 leu2delta0 met15delta0 ura3delta0 deltaTWT2. bat2 encodes the cytosolic branched-chain amino acid aminotransferase, The deletion of bat2 in combination with the URA3 deletion allows growth in the absence of uracil to be used as a selection for the presence of a URA3 insertion.

First ΔGCN2 and ΔGCN4 derivatives are made using the ATCC strain #406939. This is accomplished by a gene replacement strategy commonly used in yeast in which a URA3⁺ allele is used as a selectable marker for a GCN insertion-deletion allele in which URA3⁺ is integrated in the genome along with flanking direct repeat sequences replacing the sequence targeted for deletion. Subsequently a recombination event between the direct repeats is selected by demanding fluoro-orotic acid (FOA) resistance which selects against URA3⁺ function.

The DNA fragment including a gene for URA3 expression and flanking direct repeats (“URA3 repeats” fragment; SEQ ID NO:138) includes the following (position numbers refer to position in the “URA3 repeats” fragment of SEQ ID NO:138):

1) primer binding sequences that bound the direct repeats flanking URA3⁺: gcattgcggattacgtattctaatg (position 1-25; SEQ ID NO:143) and gatgatacaacgagttagccaaggtg (position 1449-1474 of SEQ ID NO:144); 2) the direct repeat sequences that flank the promoter and coding sequence: ttcagcccgcggaacgccagcaaatcaccacccatgcgcatgatactgagtcttgtacacgctgggcttcc agtg (position 26-100 of SEQ ID NO:145) and ttcagcccgcggaacgccagcaaatcaccacccatgcgcatgatactgagtcttgtacacgctgggcttcc agtg (position 1375-1449 of SEQ ID NO:146) 3) the promoter sequence:

(position 149-348 of SEQ ID NO: 147) ttttttattcttttttttgatttcggtttctttgaaatttttttgattcggtaatctccgaacagaaggaagaacgaagga aggagcacagacttagattggtatatatacgcatatgtagtgttgaagaaacatgaaattgcccagtattctta acccaactgcacagaacaaaaacctgcaggaaacgaagataaatc and 4) the coding region:

(position 349-1152 of SEQ ID NO: 148) atgtcgaaagctacatataaggaacgtgctgctactcatcctagtcctgttgctgccaagctatttaatatcatg cacgaaaagcaaacaaacttgtgtgcttcattggatgttcgtaccaccaaggaattactggagttagttgaa gcattaggtcccaaaatttgtttactaaaaacacatgtggatatcttgactgatttttccatggagggcacagtt aagccgctaaaggcattatccgccaagtacaattttttactcttcgaagacagaaaatttgctgacattggtaa tacagtcaaattgcagtactctgcgggtgtatacagaatagcagaatgggcagacattacgaatgcacac ggtgtggtgggcccaggtattgttagcggtttgaagcaggcggcagaagaagtaacaaaggaacctaga ggccttttgatgttagcagaattgtcatgcaagggctccctatctactggagaatatactaagggtactgttga cattgcgaagagcgacaaagattttgttatcggctttattgctcaaagagacatgggtggaagagatgaag gttacgattggttgattatgacacccggtgtgggtttagatgacaagggagacgcattgggtcaacagtatag aaccgtggatgatgtggtctctacaggatctgacattattattgttggaagaggactatttgcaaagggaagg gatgctaaggtagagggtgaacgttacagaaaagcaggctgggaagcatatttgagaagatgcggcca gcaaaactaa.

A DNA fragment containing a 50 bp sequence that is 100 bp upstream of the GCN2 coding region, the URA3 repeats fragment described above, and a 50 bp sequence that is 100 bp downstream of the GCN2 coding region is prepared using PCR. The 5′ primer is a chimeric sequence containing 50 bp of sequence upstream of GCN2 and the position 1-25 primer binding sequence above in (1): 50 (GCN2 5′ flanking)+5′ ura3 primer (I) (SEQ ID NO:139). The 3′ primer is a chimeric sequence containing the complement of 50 bp of sequence downstream of GCN2 and the position 1449-1474 primer binding sequence complement: 50 (reverse compl of GCN2 3′ flanking)+3′ ura3 primer (reverse compl) (II) (SEQ ID NO:140).

The PCR reaction is a 50 μl reaction mixture of 1 μl of template DNA (50 ng total), 1 μl of each primer at 20 μM, 25 μl of 2× TaKaRa Ex Taq premix, 22 μl water. The template is pUC19-URA3 repeat, a pUC19 (Yanisch-Perron et al. (1985) Gene, 33:103-119) derivative into which the “URA3 repeat” has been inserted at the multi-cloning site. The PCR condition used is:

94° C. 1 min, then 30 cycles of 94° C. 20 sec, 55° C. 20 sec and 72° C. 2 min, followed by 7 min at 72° C. The extension time is 1 min per kb.

The resulting PCR product, a ΔGCN2::URA3⁺ fragment, is purified using a Qiagen PCR purification kit.

A similar DNA fragment is prepared as above but using primers containing sequences upstream and downstream of the GCN4 coding region: 50 (GCN4 5′ flanking)+5′ ura3 primer (III) (SEQ ID NO:141) and 50 (reverse compl. of GCN4 3′ flanking)+3′ ura3 primer (reverse compl) (GCN4) (IV) (SEQ ID NO:142).

The resulting PCR product, a ΔGCN4::URA3⁺ fragment, is purified using a Qiagen PCR purification kit.

The PCR products are used to transform the strain ATCC #406939. Integrants are selected for growth in the absence of uracil. Integrant strains with insertion of “URA3 repeats” and deletion of GCN2 or GCN4 are called, respectively:

DYW1: MATa his3delta1 leu2delta0 met15delta0 ura3delta0 deltaTWT2 Δgcn2::URA3⁺ and DYW2: MATa his3delta1 leu2delta0 met15delta0 ura3delta0 deltaTWT2 Δgcn4::URA3⁺.

Using 5-FOA selection to select for elimination of the URA3⁺ allele, strains with recombination between the direct repeats are obtained and called:

DYW3: MATa his3delta1 leu2delta0 met15delta0 ura3delta0 deltaTWT2 Δgcn2 and DYW4: MATa his3delta1 leu2delta0 met15delta0 ura3delta0 deltaTWT2 Δgcn4

Plasmids pRS423::CUP1-alsS+FBA-ILV3 and pHR81::FBA-ILV5+ GPM-kivD (described in Example 2) are transformed into Saccharomyces cerevisiae DYW3 and DYW4 to produce strains DYW3 (Δgcn2)/pRS423::CUP1-alsS+FBA-ILV3/pHR81::FBA-ILV5+ GPM-kivD and DYW4 (Δgcn4)/pRS423::CUP1-alsS+FBA-ILV3/pHR81::FBA-ILV5+ GPM-kivD. A control strain is prepared by transforming vectors pRS423 and pHR81 (described in Example 2) into Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ATCC strain #406939) [strain 406939 (GCN2⁺ GCN4⁺)/pRS423/pHR811. Strains are maintained on standard S. cerevisiae synthetic complete medium (Methods in Yeast Genetics, 2005, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., pp. 201-202) containing either 2% glucose or sucrose but lacking uracil and histidine to ensure maintenance of plasmids.

For isobutanol production, cells are transferred to synthetic complete medium lacking uracil, histidine and leucine. Removal of leucine from the medium is intended to trigger an increase in copy number of the pHR81-based plasmid due to poor transcription of the leu2-d allele (Erhart and Hollenberg, J. Bacteriol. 156:625-635 (1983)). Aerobic cultures are grown in 175 mL capacity flasks containing 50 mL of medium in an Innova4000 incubator (New Brunswick Scientific, Edison, N.J.) at 30° C. and 200 rpm. Low oxygen cultures are prepared by adding 45 mL of medium to 60 mL serum vials that are sealed with crimped caps after inoculation and kept at 30° C. Sterile syringes are used for sampling and addition of inducer, as needed. Approximately 24 h after inoculation, the inducer CuSO₄ is added to a final concentration of 0.03 mM. Control cultures for each strain without CuSO₄ addition are also prepared. Culture supernatants are analyzed 18 or 19 h and 35 h after CuSO₄ addition by both HPLC (Shodex Sugar SH1011 column (Showa Denko America, Inc. NY) with refractive index (R1) detection) and GC (Varian CP-WAX 58(FFAP) CB, 0.25 mm×0.2 μm×25 m (Varian, Inc., Palo Alto, Calif.) with flame ionization detection (FID)) for isobutanol content, as described in the General Methods section. Production of isobutanol is enhanced by the presence of the mutant gcn alleles. In general, higher levels of isobutanol per optical density unit are produced by the GCN mutants. 

1. A recombinant yeast host cell having the following characteristics: a) the yeast host produces butanol when grown in a medium containing a carbon substrate; and b) the yeast host cell comprises at least one genetic modification which reduces the response in the general control response to amino acid starvation.
 2. The yeast cell of claim 1 comprising a recombinant biosynthetic pathway selected from the group consisting of: a) a 1-butanol biosynthetic pathway; b) a 2-butanol biosynthetic pathway; and c) an isobutanol biosynthetic pathway.
 3. The yeast cell of claim 1 wherein the at least one genetic modification reduces production of a protein selected from the group consisting of Gcn1p, Gcn2p, Gcn3p, Gcn5p, Gcn6p, Gcn7p, Gcn8p, Gcn9p, and Gcn20p.
 4. The yeast cell of claim 3 wherein the at least one genetic modification is a disruption in an endogenous gene encoding a protein selected from the group consisting of Gcn1p, Gcn2p, Gcn3p, Gcn5p, Gcn6p, Gcn7p, Gcn8p, Gcn9p, and Gcn20p.
 5. The yeast cell of claim 1 wherein the cell is a member of a genus selected from the group consisting of Saccharomyces, Candida, Yarowia, and Hansenula.
 6. The yeast of claim 1 where the cell is Saccharomyces cerevisiae comprising a disruption in an endogenous gene encoding a protein selected from the group consisting of Gcn1p, Gcn2p, Gcn3p, Gcn5p, and Gcn20p.
 7. The yeast of claim 1 where the cell is Yarrowia lipolytica comprising a disruption in an endogenous gene encoding a protein selected from the group consisting of Gcn1p, Gcn2p, Gcn3p, and Gcn5p.
 8. The yeast of claim 1 where the cell is Candida albicans comprising a disruption in an endogenous gene encoding a protein selected from the group consisting of Gcn2p, Gcn3p, and Gcn5p.
 9. The recombinant yeast cell of claim 2 wherein the isobutanol biosynthetic pathway comprises: a) at least one gene encoding an acetolactate synthase; b) at least one genetic construct encoding acetohydroxy acid isomeroreductase; c) at least one gene encoding acetohydroxy acid dehydratase; d) at least one gene encoding branched-chain keto acid decarboxylase; and e) at least one gene encoding branched-chain alcohol dehydrogenase.
 10. A process for production of butanol from a recombinant yeast cell comprising: (a) providing a recombinant yeast host cell which 1) produces butanol; and 2) comprises at least one genetic modification which reduces the response in the general control response to amino acid starvation; and (b) culturing the strain of (a) under conditions wherein butanol is produced.
 11. The process of claim 10 wherein the recombinant yeast host cell comprises a recombinant biosynthetic pathway selected from the group consisting of: a) a 1-butanol biosynthetic pathway; b) a 2-butanol biosynthetic pathway; and c) an isobutanol biosynthetic pathway.
 12. The process of claim 11 wherein the isobutanol biosynthetic pathway comprises: a) at least one gene encoding an acetolactate synthase; b) at least one gene encoding acetohydroxy acid isomeroreductase; c) at least one gene encoding acetohydroxy acid dehydratase; d) at least one gene encoding branched-chain keto acid decarboxylase; and e) at least one gene encoding branched-chain alcohol dehydrogenase.
 13. The process of claim 10 wherein the at least one genetic modification reduces production of a protein selected from the group consisting of Gcn1p, Gcn2p, Gcn3p, Gcn5p, Gcn6p, Gcn7p, Gcn8p, Gcn9p, and Gcn20p. 